So, it’s a new year, a new start and just about everyone seems to be making new year resolutions. Whether it is about getting fit, quitting smoking, getting a promotion in your job or just generally being a better person, almost everyone seems to make one ( or in some cases maybe two, three or four).
Now, I understand that the New Year is a time to reflect on the past and look forward to the coming year. At the same time, therefore, it can also be a time to examine what may need to change or improve – this is completely understandable and fairly achievable. But making several ambitious, sublime and often unrealistic resolutions is sometimes not. Becoming a fitness freak all of a sudden and going to the gym every day, when in reality you have never done a minutes exercise in your life and don’t even own a pair of trainers, is a prime example of something that would appear rather hard to maintain in the long-term, even with the best intentions. Giving up smoking altogether when you have been smoking for as long as you can remember and it is a habit you hate but is almost insurmountable to kick, is again, hard to maintain continually. It's like an annual empty promise, so why waste your time?
However, failing to follow through with these resolutions and giving up after months, or perhaps even weeks, of trying can simply leave you feeling like a failure. So why do we really bother? Wouldn’t it be better to give ourselves easier targets, i.e. 'I will go to the shops and buy myself a pair of trainers and then go on the odd run', rather than splash out on a luxurious gym membership that I will probably use for a month at most, and then never again? Or, 'I will cut back on the smoking and aim to get down to 2 a day'. This seems a bit more achievable. But will it be done? Probably not. And why? Well, maybe failure inspires us. Or maybe we just never learn.
Whilst there is absolutely no way I will make another list of things I will obviously fail to achieve when I already have several previous years’ worth of seasonal self-flagellation shoved down the back of my old drawers, some people continue to believe that the following year will be the year they achieve all of their niggling ambitions and finally make peace with their flaws.
I certainly have a lot of admiration for those who not only make them, but those who stick to them – something I have never managed to do.
The Top Ten Most Famous New Year's Resolutions (which I found on google)
1) Spend more time with family and friends
2) Get fit
3) Quit Smoking
4) Tame the Christmas bulge
5) Enjoy life more
6) Quit drinking
7) Get out of debt
8) Learn something new
9) Help others
10) Get organised