Guy Lloyd on the task of becoming a better man

A little resolution

Happy New Year? Well ultimately, it’s up to you isn’t it? I struggle with the whole New Year thing. At some point in history, someone made up time, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, etc. We went along with this and then at some point, someone decided to mark the end of the year with the biggest hangover. And with the arrival of facebook, we now have everyone sharing their ups and downs from the previous year and their hopes and dreams for the following year.

But really it just continues, doesn’t it? This ‘time’ thing we like to pigeon-hole into categories. Why wait for next year? Why wait for tomorrow? Get on with it now, people. You may be dead tomorrow.

This is why I’ve avoided New Year’s resolutions over the last few years. I used to set them and they were nearly always impossible to achieve (give up drinking, marry Lily Allen, etc). I tried a couple of dry Januarys and it was the most miserable time of my life. I find January unbearable at the best of times.

Compared to December, it’s quite a comedown. Why would you not allow yourself a drink during the darkest time of the year? Yes, there are health benefits after the indulgence of Christmas, but surely you deserve the odd glass of wine or a beer after work? I know I do.

I have re-set my resolutions. But it’s not something I do at the start of a new year. It’s something I try to do every day. A ‘work in progress’, if you like. And that goal is simple; to be a better person – a better father, husband, friend, presenter, footballer, dancer (Dad dancing is creeping in). Try to better myself and become a better man than I was yesterday. Challenge myself, work on my flaws, listen to my wife when she says I’m being unbearable and try to change myself.

I mean, that’s all we really have left isn’t it? If you looked at the world as a whole, it’s pretty grim in places and without putting a downer on your 2015 already, I can only see it getting worse. And by that, I mean the things that seem out of our control; poverty, wars, corrupt politicians … yeah sure we can vote, but how can we really change the world? We change our own. We become better people and that invariably improves and influences the lives of the people around us. If we’re happy, then our friends, family and work colleagues will feel the benefit of that.

I’m not doing a Russell Brand here. I’m just asking you to love yourself, strive for self-improvement and spread the love with the people around you. It’s all we have left. But it’s a very powerful thing.

Happy New Year.

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