By Darcey Taylor

Every time the New Year rolls around many of us enter the next year with high hopes and resolutions for change. ‘This year will be my year’, echoes in the air. From the chime of midnight on New Year’s Eve, we are suddenly a new, or at least so we like to think. But after the glamour of the evening wears off, and more importantly the prosecco, the possibility of those resolutions being successfully fulfilled suddenly seems less and less likely. Here’s what you’ll go through… 

Setting the Resolution

It’s time to think what you want to change about your life and so you’re going to go through the list of what you want to achieve or would like to change, and most probably last year’s resolution is still on the list. Make sure you choose something achievable. My New Year’s resolution for the past two years was to lose two and a half stone but this year I became so tired of letting myself down I changed it to ‘eat as much sushi as you can’. Much more achievable.

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Pretending You Never Made One

‘So what’s your New Year’s resolution?’ is harped at you in the days following the New Year and you lie with, ‘oh, I’ve not made one this year, I think they’re silly.’ As you gently tuck your list of resolutions away into your draw which features such goals as; meet the love of your life, amazing new career, give up alcohol, buy four Chanel bags, and own a farm. There is way too much pressure to actually succeed with your resolutions when they are public. And a whole lot more embarrassment when you give up because people do not let you forget, especially when it’s the fourth time around.

One Hundred Percent Commitment

You’ve bought that book on meditation, invested in that juicer, and been to the bank to set up the best ISA for long term saving. You sit down with your green tea, gluten free brownie and your book on how to attract the perfect guy because you’re staying in to watch those pennies. Yep, this is going to be a breeze. Change is good! Change is what you’re all about.

Having a Resolution Relapse

It’s Feb and you’ve done a whole month of ‘new you’. So it’s time to take a break. You stop the diet, book a holiday with those savings, and swap that green tea to get back on the coffee. You just need to treat yourself a little bit, you know just for a while and then you’ll get back on it for sure…maybe…we’ll see.

Making a Few Adjustments

A few months, or perhaps just even weeks have passed now and it’s time to reassess. Ok, perhaps an amazing new career is a stretch, maybe a bit of a pay rise will do for this year. And maybe you don’t have to find your soulmate this year but rather just go on a few dates with the same person, at least get them to ‘introduce to friends’ level. That alcohol one? Yeh, just scratch that one off the list.

June Already !?

Wait, what !? It’s June!? No, no, no. Only half a year left! I need more time than this if I’m going to complete these resolutions, like you know…ermmm…what were they again?

Accepting Defeat

Ok, so it wasn’t meant to be this year. At least you tried. After the hope and joy which the festive period brings, fades, you realise your life is pretty damn busy. And tiring! Too tiring and monotonous to sacrifice all those little naughty bits which get you through. Yep, you finally come to accept you and you’re life is pretty great as it is, but if anything needs changing, there’s always next year….

GIF source: Giphy