Are you doing New Years Resolutions this year?

Join a gym

Buy gym clothes

Actually, go the gym

Travel more

Read more

Learn a language

Start a podcast

Why do we do this?

What is this profoundly odd tradition of inventing goals that suddenly make us evolve at the strike on midnight between 31^st December and 1^st January?

Unlike Cinderella and her carriage, we’re not going to transform from our flawed pumpkin-esque selves to something glittery and perfect at the flip of a calendar.

I don’t know about you but on the 1st January, I will continue to be the same flawed individual I have been for the past 22 years of my life – not because I’m moody or cynical but because I’m a realist who understands that my worth is not tied up in my ability to tick-list a few fairly unimportant goals off in my diary.

Sorry but if you didn’t go to the gym in December, you won’t go in January. It’s still as cold and dark outside as ever  – just minus the tinsel – and if you don’t have a sport or a routine that you love, the gym will just be that monthly subscription weighing down your bank account alongside Spotify and Netflix.

Despite the rant – please, don’t get me wrong, I am all in favour of improving yourself.

I will freely admit that I am my worst critic for noticing when I’m slacking in my personal and professional lives.

Whether I feel I’m not writing enough or I’m getting lazy or my eating habits are getting unhealthy, every time I have a down day I make a list of why am I feeling down and what do I need to do to feel more accomplished and better about myself.

Usually it’s noticing that I’m not eating or sleeping properly, and that I should properly get some sunlight. While I’m great at looking after my houseplants, I’m not always so good at looking after myself. So, I have an ongoing ever-evolving goals list which hops from diary to diary as I get older and fill some more pages with my words. To a certain extent, it’s an ongoing career and home-life bucket list of let’s achieve all of this. Personally, for me, that never includes, lose twenty pounds but if that is a happy and healthy achievement for you, please go ahead.

Just please, please, please don’t only write out your goals over New Years and don’t kick yourself when it hits March and you still haven’t walked into the gym yet.

Or you could just be content in knowing we are ultimately all pumpkins.

Just some of us are ok with that.