Anna Turner- New Year's Resolutions | Canterbury Opinion | Local Voices from Canterbury, New Zealand

Quit Smoking. Lose 5kg. Get a new job.  

We've all made a New Year's resolution at some stage of our lives.   

There's just something about the start of a new year that makes us want to better ourselves. 

It's the same as when I was at high school. Every year I'd buy new stationery and promise myself this year I would fill it with intelligent words, as if the blank pages could magically transform me into a more diligent student. 

But it never happened.

Inevitably, a few weeks in, my resolve would collapse and I'd return to scribbling in the margins of my new books and ripping out the pages to pass notes to my friends.  

I've made many other resolutions over the years - from the practical (quit biting nails, learn to change a tyre) to the more lofty and idealistic (be nicer to people, reconnect with old friends).   

Almost all have failed miserably.   

Most good intentions tend to fall by the wayside pretty quickly. Perhaps the reason so many fail is that we make the resolutions while we are on holiday.

While relaxed (and probably slightly tipsy) it seems somehow reasonable that just because the date will soon change we can change ourselves too. When real life sets back in, we find it difficult to fit the new routines in around our busy schedules.   

But this year, I've finally made one I think I can achieve: I'm going to run my first half-marathon in May. Although, I was cheating a little when I made it because I'd actually already paid my entry fee and ordered the T-shirt.   

When I went on my first training run this week (it was a pretty slow one after two weeks of indulgences), there were far more people out running than usual. I wondered how many were starting fitness resolutions - full of vigour and purpose, thinking this will be the year they change their lives.  

I also wonder how many will still be there next month?  

I've had a training plan made for me by a running fanatic friend, but already it's been hard to stick to. Each night that is scheduled for a run something seems to pop up that interferes with my programme, or I'm tired and the couch looks irresistible.   

But I'm determined to finally follow through with a resolution for once in my life.  

So, I've stuck the schedule up on the fridge - where I'm forced to look at it constantly - and colour in green each day that I do the workout. The guilt of seeing it every time I go to the fridge has been keeping me going.   

I'm optimistic that by the time May rolls around I will be looking at a calender full of green.   

But in the (hopefully unlikely) event that the calendar is dominated by the shameful red pencil, next year's resolution might have to be to give up on resolutions all together.  

Surely that's one resolution no-one can fail, right?   

*Have you got a New Year's resolution? Comment below or email Anna Turner.