It's time to take the plunge

Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life. And what a life it's going to be. Once you quit smoking, you can use the money saved to buy a round-the-world ticket, which you'll use when you quit your unrewarding job, writes Shane Hegarty.

It's New Year, and time for resolutions. They will possibly be annual resolutions, given an airing each January before disappearing for the rest of the year. You can blame the Babylonians for putting this particular social pressure on us. Four thousand years ago, while celebrating their New Year in March to coincide with the planting of crops, they resolved to return any borrowed farming tools to their rightful owner. While our more arbitrary calendar means that January 1st doesn't have agrarian significance, all its notions of a renewal and starting over - coupled, perhaps, with the relative hedonism of the week that goes before it - makes the psychology behind New Year's resolutions a simple one.

"What one does on this day one will do for the rest of the year," goes the proverb, although for many, New Year's Day is about waking with a headache and spending the day watching matinée after matinée until it's time to call for a take-away. Not a bad way to spend a single day, perhaps, but not so good for 365 of them. Alternatively, New Year's resolutions may get put into action, but sometimes with a 24-hour postponement.

"I wouldn't go mad for January 1st as a key time to give up smoking," says Norma Cronin, of the Irish Cancer Society's Quitline. "It's a good day to begin preparing and to set a date, but it's not necessarily the best day to start, seeing as most people are dying of a hangover."

The recent Budget has ensured that the Quitline has already been through its busiest period, and while the New Year will be busy, it is not extending its hours. "A lot of people will have waited until they got through Christmas and will have already prepared themselves for an attempt in the New Year." They have previously run smoking groups in January, but found that people tend not to stick it out. "They need to be prepared in advance. They just don't wake up on January 1st and stop straight away."

Yet, it does seem that we are, for one month at least, a brighter, healthier, more generous, more toned population. At the end of December it seems we look in a collective mirror and see baggy eyes, rolls of fat peeking over the belt and a shelf of unread books, but by the end of January we want to see mortarboard and a sparkle in the eye.

Gyms are packed. Night classes prepare themselves for a new influx. Cigarette packets go unopened. Even charities find that the number of volunteers goes up.

"It's definitely a time of year when we get an influx of people wanting to volunteer," according to Sandra Velthuis of Volunteering Ireland. "The difference isn't massive, but it's notable. Christmas is a big time too, as is September when the schools come back. But people's good intentions do show through in January."

Many night courses are timed to catch the shoal of people looking to improve themselves. "Oh yeah, in January and February the numbers would rise significantly," says Hugh Arthur of education publishers Learning Ireland. "It's always a busy period, although August and September are the busiest. In the New Year, though, we would see a huge increase, especially in night classes, the courses that would count more as pastimes." The areas of health and well-being, not surprisingly, are popular. Yoga is particularly popular. People also tend to go for short-term general interest courses. A nice six or 10 weeks in which they can learn something new to tide them over for the rest of the year, and before their attention span drops.

Barry Carthy, operations manager of Clontarf's Westwood gym says that all its classes are full in January, due to a combination of those who missed out during the busy month of December and newcomers determined to get into shape. "It's as if every member just turns up together. That will generally last until February, when things go back to normal. I suppose that people feel like there's a gun to their head at this time of year."

Surely, the changing rooms are filled with people they know will be one workout wonders; those who work up a sweat that cleans their conscience, but who don't have the dedication to come back week after week. "People would surprise you. You might see a mother come in here at the beginning of the year and think that she won't come here too often. But she'll be there every morning from there on in. Then you'll see a business guy arrive in with all the gear, looking serious, but he won't last at all."

Similar to education, while January and February are busy months for gyms, they are apparently no busier than September when people return from holidays. It seems that whatever we see on the beaches of the Continent - and whatever we eat in the restaurants - makes us feel uncomfortable enough to seek the comfort of the gym to assuage it. New Year's resolutions, then, get an unconscious airing again in September. It's just that we notice it more in January when the notions of a clean slate are most obvious.

Often, the manner in which we make our resolutions mean that they are promises built on sand. Our goals are often vague," says psychologist, Prof Aidan Moran. "For example, saying 'I'd like to become fitter' is not as motivating as making a commitment to visiting the gym three times a week for the next month."

We are also, he adds, easily distracted from our goals and liable to break from them once the going gets tough.

He recommends certain procedures that will help.

Make a list, and tick off your achievements as you work your way through it. He recommends you reward yourself for your efforts, although it would seem obvious to say that a day without cigarettes shouldn't be rewarded with a sneaky fag. You should also get regular exercise as a way of clearing your head and keeping you focused. If your resolution is to do more regular exercise, then that will come with the territory.

Good luck, then, with your New Year's resolution. And if it doesn't work out, you can always try later in the year. Or next January.

Suggested New Year's resolutions . . .

Cherie Blair:

To not make new friends and not be so influenced by people

Bertie Ahern:

To give up sports

Roy Keane:

To take up Tai Chi, yoga, aromatherapy, flower-arranging, whatever it takes

Eamon Dunphy:

To spend Friday nights in front of the television (cameras)