The lighter side of life with Kate Mason: Dream bigger at New Year: don’t deprive yourself

After weeks of over indulgence it’s that time of year when we are encouraged to go cold turkey and unfortunately I’m not referring to Christmas dinner leftovers.

That’s right it’s New Year’s resolution time when we are expected to deprive ourselves of some of life’s greatest pleasures.

So brace yourself for a flurry of Facebook statuses filled with daily diet and exercise updates and the dry January crew preaching about drinking water instead of wine.

As if it isn’t depressing enough to be packing the Christmas tree and decorations away we’re expected to impose unrealistic goals on ourselves too - I thought the phrase was happy New Year?

Noble though it may be to give something up you enjoy as a resolution I’ve rarely seen the benefits.

Every year millions of people make resolutions but a staggering 80 per cent of us fail to achieve them. Most of us strive for unrealistic goals and ultimately set ourselves up for a failure.

It’s a strange tradition, you wouldn’t continue to bet on the donkey of the race at 1000 to one yet we’re more than happy to continue to make resolutions we are unlikely to keep.

According to figures most New Year’s resolutions will be broken by mid January

Don’t get me wrong I have made resolutions in the past but as I get older I don’t really see the point.

Why wait until January 1st to do something you probably should have started last summer?

It’s like the starting a diet on a Monday philosophy - you know you need to lose weight but heaven forbid you opt for a midweek day to curb the calories.

Instead you spend the whole of Sunday stuffing your face with junk in preparation for this designated day of dieting.

But there’s no denying psychologically New Year does feel like a good time to start a new chapter and make a change.

But instead of banning yourself from indulging in the fun stuff why not add to your character.

Scrap the diet and non-drinking and instead pledge to learn a new skill or take on a new challenge.

Learn an instrument, take that trip you’ve been putting off for years or make a pact to put more time aside to read that pile of books gathering dust.

If you really want to have a happy New Year do more and dream bigger, don’t deprive yourself.

Happy non-New Year resolution making (she says, still eating Christmas chocolates and sipping on a snowball ... hic!)

Related topics: