I've already discussed previously that I don't really do New Year Resolutions. Indeed this year I didn't even start a new toothbrush and razor.
But everyone else has probably started out with their resolutions. A lot of my friends on Facebook are already very piously NOT DRINKING, quite a few are carb-cutting or otherwise exercising.
I'm not.
For a number of reasons.
Firstly, it's just a tokenistic change of day. It's no different to any other day. There is no reason why this year is going to be anything different to any other year. Do excuse me if I have just urinated on your self-righteous smugness.
But, aside from natural expiry (I really should change my toothbrush as I've been using it since the clocks went back) there is nothing about the New Year which is good. Christmas is over, massive anti-climax, the worst two months of weather are expected with little to look forward to until the Easter holiday when the weather finally starts improving. Unless, of course, Valentine's day is a remarkably lovely and stress-free occasion for you.
If you are using the tokenistic change-of-day as a real opportunity for self improvement then good for you. If you are using it to change job or improve your health then good on you. But why now? Why not in November when you realised you were doing nothing else with your night times over winter? Why not in September when the college course actually started? Why not three years ago when your wife actually left you for the chap who owns the cornershop just down the road from where she works?
In previous years I have done the whole big new year, new toothbrush, new razor, new tomato ketchup, house cleaned and tidied etc. But I have never attached any particular emphasis to the 'new year' thing, other than it being a specific date to work to. So with toothbrushes, it sits conveniently half-way between the other new-tooth-brush days of Clocks Forward and Clocks Backward. I generally start a new razor at the beginning of the month anyway, simply because it makes it easy to keep track. And I use the opportunity of a few days off work to clean and tidy the house - I like a clean and tidy house anyway, but the extra time means looking at the extra jobs of tidying out certain cupboards, the things at the back of the fridge that I never normally look at. To that extent, these things haven't really become New Year New Me routines, but purely a coincidence that the bank holidays mean time off work to do the things.
But this year I didn't. I didn't make any effort to clean the house. I still have to change the bedsheets, clean the bathroom and only last night (5th January at the time of writing) did I clear the ironing pile that had been there since the end of November. And, as I say, I still have to dig out the new toothbrush and razor from under the bath. I am not giving up drink, nor am I going swimming for a while. I am in absolute reverse of everyone else. I know I don't need resolutions: I am not unhealthy, unfit, or overweight, so it isn't as though I require them for self-improvement.
I have almost reactionned against the New Year New Me philosophy. But there are many reasons behind it.
Firstly, on review, last year was not a terrible year but it was not especially fantastical. I did not get the new job that I wanted, I did not achieve any particular self-fulfillment, get my book published or anything. I got the bathroom and bedroom absolutely finished, but paid for it with a poor performance in the garden. So it is clear that the tidy house and new bottle of ketchup at the start of the year was hardly setting myself up for a year of wonderous amazement. I'm not saying that doing the opposite will, but it is tokenistic. Why do we sit and navel gaze back over a year at the end? Well because it is numerical. But we do it at other times of the year with less pomp, circumstance or introspection. We often get to September and analyze what a rubbish summer we have had, the end of a holiday to review and regret the return to work.
I also didn't have time to do the tidy house new year. I only got home at lunchtime on the 30th December, after spending just over two weeks in London and the Seychelles (more later). This meant that I hadn't had the limbo week between Christmas and new year to sort all my various jobs out - I barely had one day.
I'm not exercising for two reasons. Firstly, the swimming pool will be hell. People will be doing the Brand New Me January. People who haven't been swimming in around 11 months will be back there for the three or maybe four weeks before they give it up again. I can't stand those people, and it makes it very difficult for those of us more committed the rest of the time. But also, I have other intentions.
Despite not having resolutions, I do have 'Aims'. These aren't specific to new year though. One of my Aims, for example, is to try to get the lounge decorated in time for Easter. This is a project which has been ongoing since September or October, and Easter is a perfect time for it to end: I will be able to concentrate my evenings thereafter on gardening; and I will be able to furnish the lounge in the Easter sales hopefully. But - despite the previous comments - Easter really isn't that far away, so I have my work cut out to achieve the target. And that means putting aside swimming or such like until I have time (or the weather improves that I can jog to work again).
And I'm not giving up drinking either. Many people do this in January, so much so that a charity has taken up the cause to get people to achieve something for the charity as well as themselves. Don't just give up drink, raise money for a good cause at the same time. Become a Dryathlete.
I'm not saying I don't applaud this. If you are having a break from booze, good. I did. And if you are raising money for a good cause, all the better. Just don't be pious about it. One of my friends gives up at midnight on the 31st, thereby making the night awkward - he either really goes for it on the 31st and gets ridiculously drunk so he doesn't need to drink after midnight (or can't), or he makes a big thing at midnight about not drinking any more. He might as well just go home. Another of my friends makes very clear to any event invite in January that he is not drinking so it is not worth him going. Either go, don't drink and don't make an occasion of it; or don't go and don't make mention of it. Just don't rub it in my face. Do it to make yourself feel better, not to make everyone else feel worse.
I have my own reasons for not not-drinking.
I will cut-down on booze, purely out of natural reasons - fewer people go out in January, so I won't get invited out so frequently. And I'm trying to do the lounge project, so my money and time will be diverted onto that.
But I'm not making a January gesture of it. I'm cutting back, not cutting out.
In the middle of the month one of my very good friends has her birthday. I feel sorry for her for this. I have a December birthday and I know how rubbish a December birthday is.
December birthdays are bad because people are always poor or busy. My birthday is actually exactly a week before Christmas and the excuses or reasons I get for people not coming to my celebration are:
- they are doing some sort of family occasion that they can't do at Christmas because of partner/family arrangments
- they have a work/uni/club/other Christmas celebration already arranged for that night
- they have so much going on that they need a night off organising/wrapping/detoxing/saving money.
And so it is that I have my few Aims: the lounge, the job, the lottery. I have no resolutions, and in the meantime I have a temporary suspension of a few of my normal routines. But until then...
Happy New Year!
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