Don't Stop, Start

Last year felt like a really tough, fairly stressed out year.

But is it all just relative? I mean, I am still in good health, still have a good job, and a supportive family. So why am I beating myself up about gaining a few pounds, anxious about my next move at work and tense about improving happiness at home? I really do not know, but I think it's what some people would call being ungrateful, others ambitious.

Either way, it's that time of year when, even if you swear you don't, we all make resolutions.

We all look back at the past year, grade ourselves for both effort and achievement, before arriving at the one thing that we need to fix in order to be a better person.

Stop smoking, speeding, gossiping, drinking, shopping, eating too much, and a myriad of others which tend to all be of a similar bent. They involve us stopping a habit that we currently enjoy, on some level. Hence why they are often doomed to fail.

So I agree wholeheartedly with Alice Du Parcq in this Sunday's Style magazine, whose solution to this conundrum was to take something up, not give something up.

For once, I cannot wait to throw myself into my list of resolutions, which include learning to play guitar, and using spa bath products everyday.

I, for one, am giving up the giving up!