January? Nope, September is the month for good intentions
Forget January, where you sit with a dike of a hangover on the first of the month munching on a lettuce leaf because you are so needed to do healthy. September seems to be the time for some action in the taxi to turn your life around.
The first reason to NEVER have a good intention at the beginning of the year: only ten per cent of resolutions make it to December. If that's not enough, I hereby declare you heartbroken. Starting in January is almost a guarantee of failure, so if that's what you're waiting for? Just do it, don't read any further.
Ha, I thought. But first: how ís it really you? Just back from holiday, still tending to those glasses with paper umbrellas at sunset on the terrace? With a little sense of nature, now you can even find a table out of the wind in the sun to hold on to that holiday feeling. Finally read a book further than halfway through again? Made it late by an out-of-control barbecue at the neighbours' house you weren't invited to? Yep, me too. The secret is that we are happier in September. Summer makes you the best version of yourself, making you unstoppable this month.
Christmas then, where you do ten addresses in three days, some a bit hotter than others. Where you forget to get that present for his aunt, scoop cream sauce all over your new silk blouse and get an evil drunk from the red wine. Ticking off that one deadline before you can go jingling exhausted under the tree. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, ammehoela.
The trick is to break your routine around September. Summer makes you give up your rhythm and your upper chamber gets a revamp of its own accord as a result. A holiday makes you aware of what can be done differently and of what you want. Once you have landed a bit, you will find it easier to keep those resolutions, because you are rested. So this month it has to happen.
I have been back from holiday for two days. The resolution is to go away more often, seemed like a fun one. Now really never smoke again, because it gets sneaky. Just like eating healthy and sitting at the table at Christmas wearing a tight suit. Today's score: a bowl of granola with soy yoghurtt and banana, 10 sweets from Greece, 4 pieces of stuffed speculaas, 3 spoonfuls of flakes, 2 thickly spread crackers with healthy stuff, as well as the sandwich at lunch, 2 cigarettes, 0 alcoholic drinks (would be weird), still an insatiable craving for snacks and níets booked. Yes, the evening has yet to begin. But tomorrow morning I'll be at the gym. Really. Not a word about it.
