So it’s January again. It seems, dear reader, to have come round a bit quick, but the calendar never lies. Actually that’s rubbish. My calendar says it’s 2010, so can’t really be trusted for anything very much at all anymore. But, depsite my calendar’s confident assertion that it is eternally December 2010, it is, quite clearly, January all over again, and time to do the whole resolution thing once more with feeling.
To get me in the mood for this I had a little lookie back here to see what I’d resolved last year. I won’t lie. It was a tad disheartening, because basically I’m going to be resolving all the same stuff again. I still need to lose weight, about half a stone less than I needed to lose at the start of last year, but the bigger picture is still rather unhealthily hefty. I still need to focus more on writing, and I still need to get over my utter phobia of being in control of a moving automobile.
Now that realisation might give the impression that 2012 was not a successful year. That would not be true at all. 2012 was great. I went to the Paralympics. I gained a very gorgeous niece. I went to Venice (and Venice is, in my humble opinion, amongst the very best of the good places on the planet). I won a short story competition which earned me a year’s guardianship of a little cup. I saw a panda in Edinburgh Zoo on my 10th wedding anniversary. I joined a tiny little writer’s critique group all of whom say fabulously useful things, and frequently offer me cake. I spent time doing things with people I like.
It wasn’t a year into which no rain fell. My incredible, irrepressible grandmother died at the age of 97 in June. I was poorly for a slightly disappointing proportion of it (rather inconveniently I seem to have developed IBS). And, as we’ve already noted, I didn’t really achieve my stated goals for the year at all.
So maybe that should tell me that resolutions really are a waste of time. Maybe I should stop aiming for things I’m probably not going to achieve, and concentrate on enjoying whatever comes my way. Well, partly. The “enjoying whatever comes my way” sounds good, but I still think the resolutions are worthwhile too. Because, somehow, I absolutely believe that this year will be different. This year I will do better. I think it’s good to believe that – it makes us keep trying. I don’t really do bumper-sticker wisdom. The cute sayings and affirmations that people post on their facebook statuses leave me befuddled, but here’s one I do believe. I believe that it is, pretty much always, better to try and fail, than not to try.
So in a spirit of trying, and embracing the risk of failing, here are my resolutions for 2013:
1. Lose weight – 3 stone 10lb to be precise. And keep it off.
2. Finish writing a second novel, start a third, and submit a competition short story at least once per month.
3. Get over the driving phobia.
4. Get back to blogging every(ish) week. On that note – the all new blog day for 2013 is Wednesday. Mark it on your (possibly decades out of date) calendars – Wednesday. Wednesday. Wednesday.
You never know – this might be the year I stick to all my resolutions. And if not, I’m sure the failing will bring it’s own joys along with it. See y’all back here for a review in 2014?
alison may 
Y’see, that’s why I don’t make resolutions – it always feels as though I’m setting myself up to fail. I prefer the ‘nice surprise’ element, when you (I don’t mean YOU you, I mean one, but that sounds horribly literary) suddenly find that a stone has fallen off, or you’ve come to the end of a piece of work, or that the house has somehow redecorated itself. But I understand the ‘goal’ thingie, the desire to have something to work towards, so the very best of luck to you with achieving yours!
And I too have loads of old calendars hanging around the house still, so I’m not thinking of this as 2013, more 2012 part two.
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It’s probably much healthier not to do resolutions. It is just setting up for failure. But I like them. I like the feeling of good intentions and fresh starts and all the new shiny stuff. I mean, obviously I don’t like fresh starts enough to buy a new calendar, but I like them a bit…
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Resolutions that you tell people about are well worth the making. I find that I work hard at them to avoid humiliation. If I fall short, big deal as long as I worked towards an improvement. It’s the resolutions you make in your head that are a mistake. All year you avoid doing anything since nobody else knows and then suffer the silent disappointment when the year is up. So, I won’t intrude on your blog with my own resolutions but suffice to say they are all in the public domain.
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Tell us…
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