So here we again. Another new year. And it’s the first week of January and all I’m seeing on my social media, is people talking up their goals, aspirations and resolutions for 2016. It’s a weird thing isn’t it? I mean someone invented days, months, years but if you look at it logically, it’s all time, just rolling on until we die. It just ebbs and flows doesn’t it? I mean, that’s life is it not, just flowing forward until it stops. Or doesn’t. Let’s not get in to a possible afterlife or not. That’s another blog.
My point is, January 1st arrives and people freak out and make life-changing decisions. So we wallow knee-deep in sherry and chocolate for a month and then on Jan 1st, we decide to join a Buddhist commune in Tibet. February is upon us and we realise we can’t afford Tibet, so then we get depressed and return to chocolate (if you’re drinking sherry in February, you have a problem. Have a red wine instead).
I’ve got nothing against joining a Buddhist commune in Tibet at all. In fact, I wouldn’t rule out doing that myself in the future, I just don’t get the dramatic decisions for January 1st. Why didn’t you go to Tibet last November? Why don’t you go after reading this? Why hold off something until New Year when you can do it now? I’m all over goals, ambitions and dreams, I just don’t believe you should wait until after you’ve eaten your body weight in cheese. Begin the process now and make it ongoing. Forget the calendar days, weeks, months, etc. It’s all bollocks.
Having said all that, I did make a remarkable discovery over Christmas. I learnt the art of ‘slobbing out.’ I coined the phrase myself but we’ve all been there. I’m a man that works hard. And plays hard. But I find it very hard relaxing. Not so this Christmas. It took a couple of days to wind down but once I got there, watching Bond films, eating cheese and drinking Port (so good), there was no stopping me. And when I eventually did manage to crawl the twenty steps to bed, I’d embark on incredible sleeping sessions lasting up to 10-12 hours a night. And this comes from a man who usually survives on six.
So I reiterate, this is not a New Year’s resolution, this is a process. And I’m going to take the art of slobbing out, now I’ve mastered it and take it in to 2016 and try and devote at least a day or two a month to do absolutely nothing.
Happy New Year. Whatever that is.
