Splodz Blogz New Year

Last night the world waited for a single moment when the clock chimed midnight. The start of a new year. There was excitement and anticipation, wanting and waiting. The sci-fi thriller Dr Who loving part of me kind of wonders if time will ever get stuck at midnight… but of course it never does and it’s just another second of another day, we toast the New Year in and make our way to our beds to sleep off the festivities.

You may wonder what all the fuss is about. We don’t all stay up and get together with friends and family any other night of the year – its just another midnight, another 12.01am. So what are we excited about? What are we actually waiting for? Aren’t we setting ourselves up for a fall by expecting and anticipating so much on New Year’s Eve? No. What we are doing is giving ourselves an opportunity to reflect on the year just gone, be thankful for what we have at the present time, and to look ahead to what we hope will be an awesome year to come.

It is of course up to us as individuals and families to make the best of 2012. Some of us try to push ourselves into a good start by making New Year’s Resolutions. Get fitter? Lose weight? Be more active? Learn a new skill? Spend more time doing a lost hobby? I know people who have already been out for a run this morning. Great way to start.  Whatever you’ve decided (or are thinking about), it is a way of giving ourselves a goal, making concrete our hopes for the year.  Apparently if you make New Year’s Resolutions you are much more likely to reach your goals in life. I didn’t manage to stick to all mine that I made this time last year, some fell by the wayside very quickly, others lasted a bit longer. But I do feel like 2011 was a year in which I achieved things.

Last year I wished for you that whatever you wanted from 2011 and whatever the year brought for you, that the beauty of happiness radiated on your face in the form of a smile. We all need to smile and laugh, it is a fantastic medicine and is even infectious. I hope that has been true for you in 2011 and will continue in 2012.

Personally, I have delegated 2012 as my year of getting outdoors. It’s kind of a Resolution and involves lots of things that should help me better myself. I am hoping that by promising myself I’ll get outside more I’ll spend more time walking and cycling, go on more motorbike rides, go on more days out, have more barbecues, see more of my local area (and further afield), find more things to take photos of, that sort of thing.

It’s not like I’ve been adverse to getting outside in 2011 or 2010 etc… I mean I’ve been surfing, done the Spires and Steeples, been skiing, done a bungee jump and skydive and loads of other stuff too. I love the outdoors and that is the point – I want to spend the coming year doing something I enjoy.  My mantra is life is all about the journey and it is in that vein that I try all these things and so what I do – in an attempt to make the most of my years and always giving myself something to look back at and forward to. This is me making a concerted effort to not just sit down, something I have become very good at. I want to “get out more”… into the countryside that is, to explore the world around me. I want to try and make sure I don’t spend a single day cooped up inside – it’s a promise to myself to quit with the lazy bum attitude that has enveloped me in 2011 (which I know is my own fault and down to my own excuses).

And by doing so I hope to really make the most of the year to come, creating lots of memories and being more me than ever.

I’ve already got some stuff in the diary that will help with my year of getting outdoors. I’m doing the MoonWalk in May – and am gonna have to do some serious training if I’m gonna be anywhere near 26 x 14 minute miles by then (and I am going to be asking for sponsorship!). This is also an Olympic year, and I will be carrying the Olympic Flame which will be just awesome, I still can’t believe I have been chosen for that honour. Other things too like skiing in a couple of months and the Zorbing experience I got for my birthday and haven’t used yet. Lots of things to look forward to – lots of chance to use my camera and lots of chance to make fantastic memories.

If you have any suggestions of outdoorsy things I should try and places (fairly local!) I should visit then give me a bell.

There will be no Year in Photos in 2012 for me, I’ve done the 365 project for two years now and I’m gonna have a break. But I’m expecting Splodz Blogz to follow with the outdoors theme this year. No idea in what shape yet but don’t worry, it’ll still be my “everything blog”.

So here’s to 2012. A year for making the best of the world outside my front door. A year to be in the fresh air.

I hope whatever you get up to in the year ahead you have a great time doing it.  And smile.