Friday 8 January 2016

Brand New Year, Same Old Me?!

So, did life suddenly change for you at the stroke of midnight this New Year's Eve?
Well maybe for some it did, but I'm guessing for an awful lot more of us 2016 will hold much of the same old, same old... and perhaps that's not such a bad thing.

Having probably spent the previous couple of weeks (and in some cases possibly months) eating your way through mountains of mince pies, spending obscene amounts of money on gifts no-one really wants or needs, and having watched endless TV repeats of festive 'classics', I don't know about you, but I'm more than a little relieved to get back to some normality this week. And it's no wonder some of us feel this way - evidently, so eager are we to ensure our family and friends have the most magical of experiences over Christmas and New Year, we feel the need to begin our endless preparations sometime around mid-September! Don't get me wrong I love the season of goodwill as much as the next person but, at the risk of sounding old fashioned, I do not love the consumeristic circus it's become. And so on to the New Year... once the multi million pound firework displays have quite literally gone up in smoke in capital cities across the globe, when the party popper streamers have been eaten up by the Dyson, and when you've finally managed to shake off that Prosecco party hangover, what next?

Well, contrary to the impression that last paragraph may have given, my intent with this post was not to rant on about how, in my opinion, the joys of a more traditional Christmas have become lost, but rather to rant on about the apparent expectation of some that we, and/or the world around us, will improve overnight simply because we are entering a new calendar year!

Of course change (for better or worse) just happens, it is one of life's few inevitabilities, and I shared my thoughts on this in an earlier post 'My Thoughts on Change... the Only Constant'.  However the kind of change or improvement many of us look to make each new year include things such as give up alcohol, eat less chocolate, and not just join a gym but actually visit and work out there once in a while! Sounds great eh but if you're anything like me, whilst all of these things are not impossible, buckets full of determination would be required to achieve them; as well as a level of commitment which, if I'm honest with myself would not last beyond mid-February!

So I decided for me, the dawning of 2016 would not only provoke thoughts of things I might want to change or improve, but also of those things that make me happy just as they are. Instead of half killing myself at the gym in an attempt to achieve that washboard stomach or pretending to myself I could ever become teetotal (let's face it neither of these things are ever going to happen) I am determined to regularly count my blessings and appreciate the things about myself and my life with which I'm already absolutely content... those things which I hope will never change. And what about the things in life that I may well want to change or improve, but know that I never can? Well, I'm simply going to accept that's the case and let them go - c'est la vie!

I know there's always room for improvement and that it's healthy to strive for it, indeed I will for sure try to drink less alcohol, eat less chocolate and work on improving my fitness level (just a little!). However, I certainly will not be losing sleep or be beating myself with a big stick if I happen to have lost the will by Valentine's Day!

And maybe... no hopefully, no definitely, I won't be just the same old me in 2016.  But the new and improved me won't be the result of anything to do with chocolate, alcohol or any old treadmill, it will be the result of my realisation that there's an awful lot to be said for just being happy and content with who you are, and with what you have... call it an age thing!

Happy New Year, and good luck with those resolutions!










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