Happy New Year!

It is 2011. This year, everything is going to change. This year I will keep those resolutions that I make.

Obviously apart from the one where I actually make them before the New Year begins...

Actually, I find resolutions very hard to make because I know that I will break them. 365 days (thank goodness 2011 isn't a leap year!) is a long time to keep doing one thing. Or more than one thing. Particularly if you are not in the habit of it, or it involves getting up early on cold frosty mornings. Or if all you can think about is what you must do rather than what you want to do.

Take for example what I ought to do now:

1. Strip spare bed
2. Write thank-you letters
3. Check and file the pile of receipts.

Now, I can make these into resolutions ('Strip and make spare bed after guest leaves rather than an hour before they arrive...') but, in all honesty, I'd break them. And the second is only short-term (supposedly). Whilst all these things would be good to do, they are hardly inspiring nor likely to make me a better person.

The 'better person' comes with this list:

1. Go on a diet
2. Exercise more
3. Eat fewer biscuits

Again, I know I'll break them. Particularly the last one. (Would it still count if I substituted the biscuits for cake, or chocolate, or both?)

Then there is the 'must finish off the house' list:

1. Get the builders to finish installing the woodburning stove 
2. Get the builders to fix the toilet seat 
3. Get the builders to connect the TV aerial connections 
4. Get the builders to fix all the plumbing errors
5. Get the builders to finish off the electrics
6. Get the builders to complete all the certificates for the building inspector
7. Get the builders to touch up all the paintwork where they've messed it up
8. Get the builders to correct the doors that stick
9. Get the builders to finish (full stop) 
10. Employ a landscape gardener

Dull, dull, dull. Necessary, but dull. And hardly a New Year resolution.

So there is my list of what I am willing myself to do:

1. Complete the edit of my book (including possible change of title)
2. Send it off to agents and publishers, with plenty of positive thinking
3. Go out regularly for meals or dates with my husband

And here is what I have actually decided to do:

Put on some make-up every day. Just a little mascara or lipstick - nothing fancy (no-one would recognise me if so) but just something that will make me feel good about myself, give me a little confidence and won't break the bank.

For a non-make-up wearing girl this is quite some change. Five days so far and no failure yet! Maybe this year I will actually achieve my New Year Resolution thing.

Or at least for January.