Always look on the bright side... of January

If there’s one month of the year that has an unfair reputation, it’s January.

After the celebration, excitement and excess of Christmas, the first month of the New Year can seem dark and dreary. You’ve spent all your money on presents and going out and are waiting for the credit card bill to come through your letterbox. Your New Year’s resolutions to lose weight and cut back on alcohol mean you’re avoiding your usual treats. It’s wet, cold and there are no more public holidays until spring. You can’t wait for January to be over.

New beginnings

Well, it doesn’t have to be like that. There are loads of good things about the New Year. That’s the reason why so many people around the world celebrate when the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve. Have the right attitude to January and you can view it as a clean slate.

A positive start to the year can stand you in good stead for the next 12 months. January can be about new beginnings; that might mean finally taking the Spanish lesson you said you would start three summers ago, learning how to salsa or play the guitar – or making sustainable, positive changes to your lifestyle by drinking less.

January doesn’t have to be about completely giving up things you enjoy. Research from the Know Your Limits campaign shows that almost 1.5 million English adults gave up alcohol in January 2009. However, on the 31st January 2009, the NHS issued a press release expressing concern that many of those who were “on the wagon” would return to their old habits and hit the bottle hard in February. The NHS advised people to think about their drinking choices, to stick to the government's daily unit guidelines and to try and avoid drinking everyday. Staying within these guidelines - that advise women not to regularly exceed 2-3 units daily and men not to regularly exceed 3-4 units daily – is a way to control your drinking without giving up completely.

Be realistic

It’s important not to set unrealistic goals for any New Year’s resolution. Life coach Ian Paul Sharp says that setting goals is only a worthwhile exercise if you put in place a means of achieving them. “Sometimes people resolve to drink less but still go out with the same friends and to the same places. So they end up wondering why nothing has changed and blame lack of willpower, or addiction,” he says.

“Set a goal and then think about why you want that change and, vitally, what else has to change in order to achieve the goal.”

Five ways to enjoy January

To help make the start of 2010 a positive one, here are five low alcohol or booze-free ways to enjoy yourself this January:

1.    Plan. To make sure you actually achieve your New Year’s resolutions, coaching psychologist Jessica Chivers thinks it’s a good idea to use January as a planning and preparation month. “Take January as a month to be still and calm, in contrast to the frantic and frazzled December, and work out how you will fit the new thing you want to do in to your life,” she advises. “Use January as a time to get excited about the change.”

2.    Take a new approach to drinking. Use January to think about how you can adapt your drinking so you don’t exceed the government's daily unit guidelines. “Look at the situations which usually involve drinking, and put yourself in those situations less often,” advises Ian. “So if you always go out with a certain group of friends to the pub five nights a week, cut it back to, say, three nights a week.”

3.    Try something new. There’s never enough time to do the things we actually want to do: to write that novel, to take up that new hobby or visit that country we’ve always wanted to. But these things won’t happen unless you actually take time out, and plan, to fit them in to your life. Most new evening classes start in January, for example, so you need to be ready to start in January or you will miss the boat. If you spend most of your free time in the pub or drinking on the sofa at home, it’s easy to forget that there are natural highs that are equally fun..

4.    Be inventive. “Make January special by having one week where you try something different as a family or group of friends,” says Jessica. “My family does this one week a month. We’ve tried getting up at sunrise and going to bed at sunset, not spending any money and watching seven films recommended by seven friends. It’s good to challenge yourself.”

5.    Take advantage of what’s on offer in January. Yes, the weather can be miserable in January but it can be beautiful too. The whole world seems peaceful when it’s covered in snow. Try a winter walk or go ice skating. There are usually cheap travel deals and mini breaks available in January, so get out there and take advantage of them. “Smile and laugh for no reason – even if it feels forced at first, it becomes real and alters your brain chemistry so you really do feel good,” says Ian.

Page last updated by

Unknown, 10 May 2012.

Page checked on

22 Dec 2009