Rosie Blisset, a charity consultant from south London, shares her views on New Year's resolutions.

“I think it’s great that you’re so determined,” I was once told at the end of a first date. “But to be honest, you’re a bit intimidating.” A second date was not arranged. What prompted this piece of surprisingly honest feedback? The seemingly innocuous topic of New Year's resolutions. Or, to be more accurate, my reaction to the fact that he didn’t have any.

“Why bother making any?” he asked. “I’ll only abandon them by mid-January.” A common sentiment and one that invites the listener to agree in a worldly-wise way, but unfortunately one that infuriates me.

You see, I don’t understand this half-hearted attitude towards resolutions. Why are we so willing to write ourselves and our ambitions off after a few weeks? What’s behind this collective dismissal of all the gorgeous feeling of potential that a fresh year offers?

If the experts are to be believed, it’s because we over-reach ourselves. Which can be true; anyone looking at a list which reads ‘meet the perfect man, lose three stone, get a promotion and save the world’ could well be forgiven for choosing instead to hibernate with half-price leftover mince pies. Recent tales of extraordinary resolutions, such as Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, can also be as daunting as they are inspiring.

However, the often-quoted advice to break resolutions down into manageable chunks is often not helpful. Life is big! Sometimes it requires big decisions. There’s no such thing as ‘sort of’ when it comes to getting married or having a baby. Sometimes even the strictest attempts to tackle just the tip of the iceberg can end in life upheaval.

A Woman Resolved