2010 has gone, but 2011, I'm glad you're here!

It wouldn't be a New Year without looking back at what has gone and looking ahead at what is yet to come.

Two weeks ago, as the year was drawing to a close, a new chapter of my life began. I am now two weeks into my "thirties" and that on top of this New Year have me looking forward with new vigor.

The last two years have been rough. Last year about this time, I vowed to live my life more fully even in dark times, and in many ways, I succeeded. I entered into a great new relationship, that though it ended eventually, we lived it well. I finally went outside the U.S. for traveling. I wrote more, loved more, and experienced more.

I started coaching again, something I have sorely missed. I saw more theatre. I moved my best friend in all the world in with me. In nearly all things, I have done more. Strangely, I have done all this with less. This year, my living and financial situation was even worse than before. To see how much more I have been able to do though, really proves to me something I have always believed: The world is maleable. We may not be able to have everything we want, but we can create for ourselves a better life if we try.

So that was last year. What does that mean for the one we have just embarked on? This year- the first of my thirties- I want MORE. It was at my birthday party that I first put this into words, and it is something I plan to hold on to. Last year I proved what I can do with little. This year, I intend to be DONE with "little." The economy is recovering. My roots in NYC have been planted deeper, my connections grown. And I'm 30. Some of my friends have hit this milestone with dread, but I hit it as is so unsurprising- with incredible optimism. I am excited to be living in this time and at the age I'm at.

At this moment, I feel like the world is ready to open up even more for me. I can nearly feel a satisfying job and the hint of love right around the corner. Songs have said it far better than I, but I don't know what either of these look like yet, but I know they are right there waiting for me. And I intend to take them.

So this year, I will live with more. I will continue to take forward the valuable lessons I learned last year, and live deeper. I will do even more in the places that I "slacked off" and allowed myself to resign myself to my fate. Then I will take all of this possibility, and I will add to it new adventure and new stability. If I can live well with little, this year I intend to prove that I can live the life incredible as I add more too it.

At one point in my life I was incredibly successful. Partially because of my youth and inexperience, I didn't live a great life when I had that success. Though I don't regret it all, I know now that there is so much more to life that I can have when I embrace and utilize my success. So this year, having learned those lessons, I intend to create success... and then use it well!

Here's to a new decade in time, a new decade of my life, and to a new year of immense possibility!