New Year, Same Old S**t!
 
So 2008 was rubbish, Woolworths shut down , we had an economic crash and ended up with Gobshite Brown as PM - things can only get better right?
 
We find ourselves in January the time of year when changes are made, resolutions are fixed and we as people start imposing rules and restricitions on ourselves, we want to loose weight, quit smoking, get a new job or finish with our other halves - the list is endless. But seriously is January the best time to be doing all this? Think about it, it's the coldest and darkest of the months, a time when we all suffer from the lack of sunlight (it's called SAD syndrome), we're all poor from Christmas and instead of relaxing (or hibernating like all the other sensible animals) we start fiddling around with the delicate chemistry of our lives. We must be mad.
 
But why not, it's tradition! You've read all the slogans, 'New Year, New You!' is a favourite - but I for one find myself thinking, 'well, I'm quite happy with the old me thanks!' And it's true, so many people this time of year make rash decisions and make themselves unreachable goals to meet and then suffer with the guilt and remorse when they go back on their words that sounded oh so good when they were first uttered.
 
I can't remember if I made any resolutions last year, if I did it was probably something along the lines of, I will quit smoking and will excerise more and will eat healthier. This time last year I was two stone lighter and was smoking thirty a day. I no longer look like a skeleton and only smoke around ten a day (if that!). I honestly think that if I had lost any more weight or given up smoking I'd either have died from malnutrition or been put away for murder.
 
I know 2008 has been a hard year for so many people on a variety of levels. I look at my friends, how they were January last year and how we all are now in 2009 - and we are all much better. Theres three of us, who this time last year were depressed, on tablets, in counselling, the whole hog. We are now, proudly, fit and well and healthy, and all because we decided to make a change, but best of all we all had support. It wasn't a forced decision for any of us, we all just looked in the mirror one day and thought, no this has to stop. I cannot rely on tablets to see me through the day, to help me sleep at night and to wake me up in the morning, but those decisions weren't made all at once, nor where they made in January, they were all independent epiphanies made by us as individuals when we had decided that enough was enough - but God! I couldn't have done it in Janurary!
 
If you are thinking of making any changes or resolutions this January, make sure when you do it, it is for the right reasons and it has been thought through. Do you really need to loose weight? Or are you perfect as you are? Maybe your resolution needs to be 'I will learn to love my body' instead of 'I will diet to be size zero'. If you do want to make a real change, plan in advance, maybe start your resolutions in March or April when the worst of the cold weather has passed and the joys of spring are in the air, at least give it a try, and if you fail - so what? It's been shown that 1 in 10 people fail to succeed in their new year resolutions, so just this once I'm going to advocate joining the crowd, seriously, stuff it! The likely hood is you don't need a change anyway, and any chage you do need will happen over time anyway!
 
If I give you an example, the start of 2007 was lousy for me. I had just quit university shattering my dreams as well as my family's. I'd just finished a VERY nasty relationship and had moved back home with my parents. I had managed to loose my future prospects, a relationship and my independence all in one go - and in the space of about a week! But it got better. Trust me, the end of 2008 came, I had secured a new job in the smae field as I was studying in at university, I had returned to college to start a higher education course and there wasn't a rel;ationship, but at the time I was enjoying just being me and having fun with my friends. As 2008 draws to a close, I have battled my depression, found a new love (who is so much better than all the others before - yes there is life after love!) and moved jobs again to a position I am best suited in, and I have to be honest, the love part was organic, a chance meeting, the depression was slightly more difficult, but after eleven months of plucking up the courage the trip to the doctors took me no more than half an hour, and as for the jobs - well thats another story!
 
The point is this. Don't worry yourself with all these imaginings that you have to make resolutions and stick to them - you really don't. Treat new year as a time of reflection if nothing else. Take stock of all the good things you have in your life, and what you have learned from all the bad things, and if you feel you need a change then don't jump in head first. Take your time, think it through, plan it as best you can and ask for help. The value of good help is invaluable, and you will feel much better knowing you don't have to go it alone!
 
Happy New Year.
 
Take care.
 
Shadow.