unironedman

You are perfectly entitled to hate that heading. What sensible person wouldn’t? Look, there’s nothing wrong with making a few promises to yourself. Eat a little more sensibly. Maybe cut out something from your diet. Or give up the smokes. Or take up exercise.

But everything in moderation. Nothing sets you up for failure like an unattainable new year’s resolution. My own personal gag which I shared with both of my Twitter followers was a real graphic designer’s gem:

“300ppi

That’s my New Year’s resolution.”

And really, it’s no problem if you either don’t get it, or do, but don’t find it funny. I didn’t really find it that funny either; I just felt duty-bound to put a designerly stamp on the whole thing. It’s sort of meaningless. Just like the whole resolution thing.

There are plenty of folks who are just happy to still be clinging to the planet at the end of the year’s turning. Another once around the sun. Green-side up. Whatever you’re havin’ yourself, like.

In truth, I generally don’t bother too much with the new year. Sure, as I type, I am formulating a gym routine for the workshop. It’s the workshop or bust because everywhere else is out of bounds. It will be a simple routine too: just a mat, a kettle bell and a few resistance bands. (Who said resistance bands are futile, eh?)

But apart from that modest proposal, there’s not much else on the list, other than the stuff that’s always on a list somewhere. And so I turn to others for advice and inspiration.

First up is Brendan Leonard, who trades online as Semi_Rad. If you are not already following Brendan’s regular doses of feel-better medicine, then stop what you’re doing immediately and click the link and give him a follow. Here is his take on the general 2021 approach.

The other gent is Gary blogging regularly for over a decade as I Like Margarine. His new year’s day post was thoughtful, beautifully-crafted and so damn-well written that I had a serious lump in my throat:

A blank running log. A road stretching out with no end in sight.  Hope on the horizon.

You ponder making a  New Year’s Resolution. Sure, you never came anywhere close to keeping the past 63. But maybe This Year Will Be Different.

What is it about January 1 that makes us evaluate our lives, reassess things, pretend we can change? An exercise in futility is still exercise, I suppose.

So give Gary a follow. The man is a prophet.