NEW Year’s resolutions are a peculiar affliction.
Tokenistic and self-defeating, they’re regurgitated in a post-Christmas purge while our brains are still buzzing with the guilt of festive excess.
Why this thunderbolt of clarity, this sudden crystallisation of every stain on our character, arrives at the same time every year is a mystery.
But despite the fact few of us manage to keep them, there’s still something strangely soothing in the annual resolution.
There’s nothing like the changeover to a new year to empower even the most pessimistic among us to believe, if just for a fleeting moment, that 2016 will be what we choose to make it.
So, what will the new year hold for you?
Unless you’re Maria the clairvoyant – and even then it could be dubious – it’s a question that can only be answered in 364 days’ time.
By now, you may have made – and quite possibly broken – your resolution for the new year.
It could be the year you change your life for the better by finally kicking the cigarettes, cutting back on the booze, learning a new language or losing weight.
All that is standing in your way is that most stubbornly elusive of qualities: willpower.
For others in the region, however, the success or failure of 2016 will come down to something entirely out of their control – the weather.
Forecasters predict one of the strongest El Ninos on record could be the defining weather pattern across much of the continent this year.
And while the sound of rain played a beautiful symphony on our roofs at times in 2015, silence could be the soundtrack to 2016.
In 2015, many of our grain farmers enjoyed their best year in decades.
If a savage El Nino materialises, that money in the bank could be a lifesaver.
It offers a stark reminder of how fickle farming fortunes are and how tied the fortunes of our city are to the rural sector.
As the calendar ticks over to January 1, we should all consider how we can improve our lives and those of the people we love.
Set realistic goals, make a plan and stick to it.
Remember we are all creatures of habit.
What seems foreign today can become the “new normal” tomorrow.
