What does the turn of the New Year teach us?

I first posted this a year ago, and was intrigued to re-read it. The particular reason is that, as I wrote, I had just experienced four months with a pulled hamstring, finding walking, sitting or driving very painful, and requiring that I took a cocktail of painkillers. I was facing a biopsy under general anaesthetic …

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What do we learn from the turn of the year?

Like millions of others, I stayed up on Saturday night to ‘see in’ the New Year, which for us included watching on TV £1.5m going up in smoke (with some spectacular lights) on the River Thames, and the obligatory replay of the last ten minutes of ‘When Harry met Sally’. In some ways, seeing in …

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What kinds of resolutions bring real change?

With the beginning of the New Year, we are in the customary season for making resolutions. I say ‘season’, but it is only four days in, and already the ‘resolution’ thing seems to have passed! But, as usual, there has been a variety of responses to this tradition. On my social media feeds, there seems …

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Four prayers for the New Year

I have always had mixed feelings about New Year resolutions. In previous years, January has always been the biggest time for new gym subscriptions—but most don’t continue the habit past the end of the month, and many gyms run on the subscriptions of people who never come. This suggests that January isn’t the best time …

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Are New Year’s resolutions helpful?

A happy new year to all my readers! And welcome to the season of short-lived resolutions! I say that not out of cynicism but of realism. I once helped to run a squash league at a local gym, and discovered that only around one-fifth of those who paid their subscriptions actually used the gym on …

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What does the New Year mean?

Like millions of others, I stayed up until midnight on December 31st last year (!) in order to see with friends the turning of the numbers from 2017 to 2018, and together we shared the familiar rituals: party poppers; shouts of ‘Happy New Year’ (with an unnatural emphasis on the ‘New’); singing a Scottish song …

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Are resolutions the best way to change?

Have you set your New Year’s resolutions yet? One day in, have you managed to keep them all? It’s a serious question, since we know from bitter experience that New Year’s resolutions seem to disappear faster than a cold turkey sandwich. Here are seven questions to help you think through your resolutions for the year …

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Four prayers for the New Year 2016

I am not really convinced by the idea of New Year’s resolutions. Although it is good to reflect on life, our goals and priorities, resolutions have never really worked for me and I don’t think they work for many others. (January is the biggest time for new gym subscriptions—but the gym habit doesn’t last for most …

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Four prayers for the New Year

I am not really convinced by the idea of New Year’s resolutions. Although it is good to reflect on life, our goals and priorities, resolutions have never really worked for me and I don’t think they work for many others. (January is the biggest time for new gym subscriptions—but the gym habit doesn’t last for most …

Continue Reading