Confess now: As your January comes to a close, how’s the whole ‘New Year, New Me’ looking? Surveys suggest that 80% of us will have already reneged on the resolutions we set ourselves. So if you LOUDLY gave up sugar on Jan 1st, but are now speeding through a bag of sherbet dip, why stop there? Join the rest of us sinners in a large glass of fizz!
Dry January, it seems, has proved a wash. My statistically robust study (of the few friends I’ve called) shows Covid angst has totalled even this totemic teetotalling: The moment Boris returned us to lockdown, millions of glasses came right back up. (Tempting though it is to prove we don’t have a drink problem, who wants to face this pandemic too sober?)

Hangovers aside, nothing accelerates self-loathing like the act of making A BRAVE, PUBLIC COMMITMENT only to break it a few days later. I should know: A festive ‘feast or famine’ kind of bloke, I spend December in a permanent state of feast. When not cooking for my family, I’m over-feeding myself (picture Jamie Oliver crossed with Mr Kreosote making love to a slab of Stilton. Then pity my poor wife…)
Come January (every January) I throw myself at the fitness wagon, only to tumble off when it starts to hurt, and/or get dull.
Result? Minimal fitness gain, maximum guilt.
Fed up with poor results, I’ve stopped making BIBLICAL-SIZED commitments that I fail to keep. Instead I’ve resolved to carry out small experiments I can’t fail to learn from. Here goes—
My simple formula for experimentation
The joy of an experiment is that nothing is a failure. Simply doing new things creates positive energy and momentum. Outcomes may not be perfect, but at least progress is being made. So let’s agree to strip off our ‘hairshirt of guilt’; shed our (eye-wateringly tight) ‘pants of inaction’, and grab the opportunity to learn.
It’s great to have huge ambitions, but it can take iron willpower to achieve them. In these tricky times, why not be kind to yourself? Stop failing…start experimenting.