NOEL COOGAN puts forward some suggestions for those looking to make lifestyle changes in 2019
In the month of January many people make New Year resolutions. Most of those making pledges prefer to compile lists containing ordinary intentions while others have come up with some weird wishes.
A good few of the ‘run-of the mill’ resolutions are related to drives towards better health.
Those include losing weight, exercising more, eating more healthily, consuming less alcohol and for those who indulge in the pointless pursuit of puffing, trying to give up smoking.
Other popular January pledges involve taking up new hobbies, travelling to new places and attempting to cut back on spending money as well as saving a bit every week. House improvements are also on many people’s wish list.
Some resolutions made sees hopes expressed to gain acquaintance with new friends and maybe get back in touch with long-lost associates.
Aiming to spend more time with family members is a resolution well worth putting into the little book’.
Quite a few making out January lists may consider giving donations to charitable groups and while this may sound like a laudable idea, some may wonder how much of the money given actually goes to the actual charity.
Unattached men and women, may make pledges to try to become involved in a relationship in the coming months. Of course, happy encounters often happen by accident rather than design – perhaps by being in the right place at the right time. Of course, a small ad in a publication like Ireland’s Own could result in a happy match.
Sports participants like to look ahead with their own particular ambitions at the start of the new year. Those taking part in individual events hold hopes of improving their times while team members have desires to get the best possible results.
Owners, trainers and jockeys involved in horse racing hope for a good quota of winners while punters hold aspirations of picking ‘the right one’ more often in the next twelve months.
Some people like to make unusual New Year resolutions. Two or three years ago a friend of mine wrote the following in his diary, “I pledge to post a letter to at least one person in all of the 32 counties of Ireland.”
He didn’t know someone in all of the counties but was thinking of contacting a few well-known people with some comment, request or whatever. Anyway, he did not get round to putting the rather bizarre plan into practice but maybe I could persuade him to carry it out in 2019 although the price of stamps has gone up since the idea was initially mooted.