It's the time of year for resolutions. Come to think of it, does anyone still make New Year resolutions?
Well according to the newspapers, they do because every New Year there's a double page spread, right next to the predictable 'time to detox' and 'get slim for summer' articles.
When I was a journalist I used to have to write the stuff and every year it was more hackneyed than the last as I scratched around for something new to say - diet, exercise, managing money, self improvement, relationships, all the old chestnuts were in there. Despite having to churn out several hundred words every year, I still used to make resolutions, never kept them though, naturally.
I've become rather half hearted about the whole idea in recent years because who wants to start a shiny, new year already feeling guilty and defeated? Talk about an instant downer.
I love the thought of a new year, putting the last one and all its ups and downs behind me and starting a fresh new page in my life. Some years are wonderful and it's sad to see them go but every now and then there's one that you can't wait to see the back of.
I still like the idea of making resolutions though, the concept is great, I'm all for trying to improve myself but I'm sure I'm not the only woman who on New Year's Eve, after a few glasses of something bubbly, hasn't unrealistically vowed that this is the year those jeans will fit again, that the gym will become a second home, that her bank account will stay healthily in the black, that she'll be a calm and serene mother with no shouting......
The trouble is any hardcore resolutions of mine are going to have to involve chocolate (not eating), exercising (more), working (harder), driving (slower), swearing (less), daydreaming (less), clothes (fewer).
Take chocolate for example. For most of the time I can turn my back on it but there's those few days every month when there's a very strong possibility I'd do someone a nasty injury if they stood in the way of me and a mint Aero. I once mentioned it to my (female) doctor and she suggested trying a banana instead? A banana?! Did this woman even go to med school? Has she not heard of PMT? A banana is no substitute for chocolate when those hormones are raging.
Then I realised I've been looking at this resolution lark the wrong way. It was all too negative, giving up this, not doing that. It was a recipe for disaster, the expectations were too high and the disappointment inevitable. No wonder I would hit mid January feeling guilty and despondent, as if I'd failed, having broken every blasted resolution I'd made only a couple of weeks earlier. I'd feel crap for a few days, then I'd just trundle along the same as always.
So I've decided to take a new approach. 2012 will be the year of the positive resolutions. None of that 'I'll never eat chocolate again' or 'I'll exercise every day' nonsense, nope, this year my resolutions will be all about what I will be doing not what I won't.
So as Big Ben bongs out the start of 2012 I'll be resolving to make this the year of new experiences, a year of fun and adventure and doing things I've never done before, of just going for it. Everything is possible. Well, ok, everything may be possible but no I won't be bungee jumping, doing a parachute jump or ironing, let's be realistic.
A friend recently gave me a charm engraved with the words 'follow your dreams'. Before this last year I'd probably have shoved it in a drawer dismissing it as too twee, too saccharine, but actually it says it all and that's exactly what I'm going to do in 2012.
Happy New Year.
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