New Year Resolutions

Everyone makes them but apparently no one keeps them.   Studies suggest that failure to keep to New Year Resolutions is somewhere between 88 to 92%.  I was a bit shocked it was that high but then when I thought about it the reason might be that most of us are ever so slightly inebriated when we make them.  Loads of people declaring at 12.05 that they will cycle round Ireland on a tricycle, make a meaningful documentary on the urban poor or that other major whopper lose weight.

Research shows that the New Year Resolutions are much more likely to be kept if they are relatively, small, measurable and can be enjoyed with like minded people.  Here are a few examples which should allow people to keep their word and ensure they go through the year with a sense of achievement and steady resolve:

·         Endeavour to cut down on the number of e-mail addresses you have. 

·         Think of a password for all your systems other than password or your children’s names.

·         Promise to watch more exceptionally well written American TV Series while drinking wine and facebooking your friends.

·         Buy a nice set of nail clippers and promise to keep your finger nails in good trim.

·         Take up a new hobby, smoking perhaps.  It allows you to meet new friends on social occasions as you are stuck out in the cold together (fresh air) and has potential stickability as it is very 'morish'. 

·         Put on a few pounds and genuinely don’t give a monkeys because it is natural with age.

·         Resist the demonic forces that make us continually uptight about every single aspect of our lives and just relax a bit.

These aren’t dictates just a few ideas to give you a general framework to build on so we don't start a brand New Year with that nagging feeling of imminent failure.   By the way, I genuinely think there is a direct correlation with the need to constantly “self improve”, the unsettling effect of not achieving all we are told we must and increased consumerism.   But that is for another day.  Anyway, let’s not try and reinvent ourselves because most of us are fine the way we are and have a very Happy New Year.

Craig Wilson