Forget New Year resolutions, just surviving January is enough

I never make New Year resolutions. There is no point, because I know that within a month, sometimes a week, I will have broken any promise to myself, whether that is to drink less, exercise more or cut up my credit cards.

Nor do I practice dry January (or sober October for that matter). This is one of the most miserable months of the year, so the prospect of getting through its 31 short days and long nights without a glass of Malbec with my dinner is too awful to contemplate. I have decided to buy slightly cheaper wine in order to save cash – surely that is sacrifice enough?

And I scroll past all the Insta and Facebook reels that promise me a new body or a new career, or even a new life, but only if I sign up to their get-rich/thin/live-forever scheme.

If I am going to waste money online, I will simply buy more pre-loved (second-hand) tat from Vinted or download more books from Kindle. Books I will never read.

January is a month for hunkering down. For hot-water bottles, lentil soup and sticky toffee pudding.

Swimming in ice-cold water and eating only steamed vegetables and fish are pursuits for the summer months, not the depths of a Scottish winter when the temperature plummets below freezing every night and the sun barely rises.

So don’t feel guilty if you haven’t de-cluttered your wardrobe or embarked on a low-fat diet. There is plenty of time for such pursuits in the spring and summer months, when birds are singing and the sun shining (sometimes).

Join me instead in a month of self-indulgence. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Ignoring the housework to read a thriller while eating the last of the Christmas chocolates is free. As is going to bed early to watch YouTube under the covers.

And if you must go outside, make sure you wrap up warm and have a goal in mind. My particular favourite is talking a walk down to the shops to buy a (cheap) bottle of wine for the weekend or to look for bargains in the middle aisle.

Life is tough, so why make it any tougher with pointless resolutions that will be broken by Burns Night?