Resolutions are not just for January

I’ve been repeatedly asked if I’ve made any New Year resolutions. The answer is a simple no.

I don’t think you should wait until the turning of the year to make changes in your life. And I don’t know about you, but seeing headlines every January for “It’s a New Year, New You!” style articles, or the apocalyptic warning that ‘SUMMER IS COMING!’ seems a bit clichéd. These articles invariably go on to imply that you need to book a holiday soon, and then recommend a diet akin to sewing your lips together, in the hope of wearing a bikini come June. This is aimed at all readers, even those of us who haven’t worn a bikini or speedos since Mosney was a holiday camp, or you were brave (mad) enough to face the cold waters of the Atlantic sea.

If you were lucky this Christmas, you had a week-long Christmas holiday. That’s ONE week people, not six months. Yet come January 4th many emerged into the new year, and the workplace, like a disorientated hibernating bear, having decided NOW is the time to get fit, get slim, juice kale and become an abstinence pioneer. Why now? Why do we wait until January to question our lack of activity, muffin tops and alcohol consumption? What happened over that one week of Christmas holidays?

I think making great big New Year’s Resolutions are a daft idea. Choosing a single day to start a major life change isn’t logical. That’s why New Year’s Resolutions don’t work, and when you don’t stick to them, you feel like a complete failure. This isn’t to say that no one has ever succeeded in keeping a very drastic New Year’s resolution, but the vast majority of New Year’s Resolutions go unfulfilled. If we really want to do these things, why wait until a date which marks nothing more important than a timekeeping custom?

While I’m happy to throw New Year resolutions under the bus, I would make one recommendation this year; be proactive and make sure your business is PR-fit and healthy. Many businesses are guilty of only thinking about communications, or first engaging the services of a PR consultant when they are hit by a major crisis, with potentially devastating consequences for their reputation. So let your new resolution be to make your business PR-ready, and as Benjamin Franklin said: “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”