There’s no getting away from it now, the 5th January is upon us.
For those of you who have been lucky to take an extended break over Christmas & New Year, it’s back to work and the start of a full working week. It’s no surprise that we all struggle during this month- the Christmas debt shows itself in all its “Balance Now Due” glory, mornings start earlier as we have to return to work and it’s cold dark and gloomy.
A quick Google search of “worst month of the year” brings about 410,000,000 results and, yep, you guessed it, January is at the top of the hated list, for all sorts of reasons:
“The decorations come down and nothing to celebrate”
“January: The month of lost dreams”
“January – Everyone is revved up for a new year but also suffering from the financial and emotion hangover from last month’s holidays.”
Here at Advantage First Aid, we actually kinda like January!! Don’t get me wrong, I’m dragged back into the swing of things kicking & screaming like a lot of people, but the month also presents a lot of opportunities; There is a feeling of newness about life that says
What’s to loose- you’ve got another chance to do another year all over again.
New Year’s Resolutions are just wrong on so many levels- why back yourself into a corner and set (quite often, unsustainable) life, health & wealth targets that could just make you feel a failure if you don’t achieve them?
A common criticism of January is that it’s cold & wet. However, the shortest day was the 21st December- 15 days ago. Did you know that since that day, the sunset has been up to a minute later each day since then? On the 7th January, we would have gained an extra 14 minutes of daylight in the evening. What’s more after the 7th January, the sunrise starts to get pushed back by 1 minute each day, giving us 2 minutes of extra daylight each day (one at each end).
By next Monday, the 12th January, sunset will be 19 minutes later than it was on the shortest day and sunrise will be 5 minutes earlier than it was on the 21st December.
Give January a chance, it’s giving you back your daylight, giving you a chance to start afresh and chance to get back on track from the over indulgences of December.
