We made it to 2013 - the Mayans were wrong.

Imagine that.  The world didn't end.  Who knows what the Mayans were up to?  The world could have been spared numerous B movies, apart from any angst which may have arisen from the looming end of the world.

I like milestones.  I like to take the time to think about what's next and get my mindset right for whatever is next.  I'm not really a goal setter, but I do like to be purposeful about actions that I take.  My experience over the last few years since I finished full time employment for other people in October 2008 is that things work really well for me if I think positively, don't get tense and worried and continue to act on opportunities.  I also look for opportunities.  They can be sneaky things and can easily be missed if you're not actually looking.

I just checked my New Year post for last year and am very pleased with the alignment I achieved between intention and achievement.  I am pleased with what I achieved.  I haven't tackled my lace knitting yet, but I have signed up to an online class and have the yarn wound and ready to go.  Development as a performer didn't really happen last year, but I'm okay with that.  I've been spending a lot of time developing my skills as an improviser and actor in a teaching and assessment setting.  It's not performance as such, but I'm still exercising my acting muscles.

The spare room is still a disaster - perhaps smaller and a tiny bit more organised than it was this time last year.

I'm very pleased with how my business is developing.  Bookings and interest is very strong right through the first quarter and prospects are already looking very good beyond that. I'm feeling good about 2013.

On a personal level, one of my major achievements in 2012 was quitting sugar!  I made it through the eight weeks of having no sugar at all, just in time for Christmas.  Over Christmas, I have allowed myself to share a small portion of Christmas pudding and last night at dinner I had a dessert that was far too big and far too rich, given that I'm off sugar.  It's interesting that previously I would have been fighting the urge to have seconds, but that doesn't happen anymore.  The quit program has worked and my habits and palate have both changed.  Congratulations to anyone out there who has achieved the same thing!  And if you haven't quite made it yet, keep trying - it's worth it.

My main focus for 2013 is to continue to build my business, using networking and good work as my main advertising tools.  On a concrete, practical note, I do want to get my website up and running.

Incorporating volunteering into my life while I'm working freelance is quite challenging.  Because I am only paid when I work, I need to prioritise paid work over volunteering.  Contributing to my community  is very important to me and I'm feeling a little frustrated that I haven't found a way of volunteering regularly in the way my life is currently running.  I solved that problem in 2011 by knitting for charity.  This worked because it was easy to incorporate into my usual leisure activities and didn't compete for priority with my paid work.  In 2012 I started to crochet a granny square a day and these will be turned into a blanket for someone.  I will explore further charity avenues for my knitting this year.

Floating around in my mind is the idea of going unplugged for a day a month.  I need to think about this idea more and gain clarity about what I mean.  At this stage I'm thinking about it in the context of being offline - that is, not dealing with email, social media and using the internet generally.  I feel like this would be a good thing to do to clear my mind and make sure days aren't sucked into the web vortex.

On the practical side, the spare room has made it onto the list.  I know that I need to be more specific in thinking about this as making a broad statement like "tackle the spare room" really hasn't worked.  At this moment I'm thinking "turn the spare room into a useful, welcoming space, so that it is more than a storage room".  And of course, I need a timeframe.  By 31 August 2013!

I've done fairly well with saving money during 2012, but with no real plan other than to have money to tide me over during the dead period of December and January.  I'm going to put a firm aim in place and put aside 10% of all invoices (after I've taken out tax and GST).

And I want to dance more!

My plans for divacultura are to continue to write daily as much as possible.  This is no longer a chore and I find that most days the inspiration is readily available and the writing happens fairly easily.  If I'm travelling it's often difficult to post each day, but I've decided just to acknowledge that and communicate with my readers.  Given my work schedule I may need to cut back to five posts a week, but I'll let you know if that happens.  With the development of my website for this year, I need to think about the relationship between my business and my blog and make sure I seize opportunities for cross-pollination.

Here are the top 10 most read posts on divacultura:

1. MYKI: it's your key to bureaucratic frustration
2. Quitting sugar - two weeks down
3. That's how you handle a complaint!
4. Emergency services call - communication failure
5. Missing in action
6. Photo a day June - from a low angle
7. If myki is the solution, what the hell was the problem?
8. I've got the public transport ticketing blues
9. Photo a day - June round up & July list
10. 2 Days in New York - giveaway

Post numbers 2 through to 10 were all written this year.  The top post was written in 2011.  There's a strong theme of public transport and community service being subjects of these most popular posts.  And my photos have also received lots of comments and compliments, both here on the blog and on Instagram and facebook.  The one I'm puzzled about is "Missing in action" at number 5...

Phew!  That's a great list and I'm excited about what's to come.

What are you thinking about for 2013?  What's your intention?