Take care of yourselves, beat the Blues.

Aaaah, January. New year, new beginnings. New You. New diet involving no carbs, sugar, nitrates or palm oil. And no plastic bags. New shopping habits that mean you only buy four extremely high quality garments all year!

Feeling depressed yet? Of course you are. Because one thing that unites us all at this time of year is feeling disappointed in our mid-February selves, when we have proven yet again to be unable to keep up our new healthy habits for more than a week.

But why should a word on a calendar should exert such power over us? Why not make resolutions in March or October? Why not make no radical resolutions at all, and instead work on taking sustainable baby-steps towards our goals?

Take it easy on yourself, and as with so many things we talk about here on Vestpod, be realistic. If you spent all 2017 trying and failing to give up smoking by will-power alone, don’t set a trap for yourself by pretending that because the calendar says “Jan 01” you’ll suddenly be able to do it.

Take a step back and plan a new strategy.

The most commonly made New Year’s resolutions are also the most commonly broken. We hardly need to remind you of what they are: smoking, eating, exercise and booze. The usual suspects. However, there is some hope when it comes to the last one, because in recent years the concept of “dry January” has really taken hold, and it’s so much easier to stick to a regime if a) other people are doing it, b) it’s only temporary and c) it saves you loads of cash!

Just think how much you spend on alcohol each week, especially if you’re a lover of fine wine, or a cocktail-bar regular. By the end of the month you could have a couple of hundred pounds in your pocket! And that’s exactly the sort of bonus windfall you can use to kick-start a new investment. Or buy that first extremely high quality item of clothing of the year... Silk Ganni leopard dress, anyone?

Photo by Andrei Coman on Unsplash.