Posi January

So today is supposedly the most depressing day of the year. They love that stuff, don't they, the media? It can't have been the hardest equation to work out either. Pick the month of the year everyone dislikes, then stick a pin in the middle of it. Blue Monday.

Whatevs. I am slowly learning to love January. And here's how.

(not by eating celery, that's for sure)

January splits people into camps. We've got the fervoured resolutionists, bright-eyed with their fresh starts and brand new gym kit. Then there are the cynics- the grumblers who stick two fingers up to the lot of it and bury their faces in booze and fine cheese. There are the Christmas widows, still grieving for tinsel and lie-ins (often spotted in supermarket checkout queues, clutching armfuls of discounted chocolate coins and softly weeping), and finally there are those who breeze through life treating one month much the same as the next, and are blissfully unaware that any of the above is happening to anyone (my husband).

Every year I fall  into the first category. Despite the fact that I can't get a place on a Spin class for the next six weeks because of all the gym freshers, I'm still hooked on the idea of a fresh page, new projects, achieving different things. And now I work in the fitness industry, I have discovered I love January even more.

I love January so much I wanna HIGH KICK OVER A CHAIR!

The pre-Christmas months in the fitness industry are GRIM. If November is bad then December is a catastrophe. The Christmas holiday itself is a feeble compensation tacked on the end of two months of poverty and soul-searching. Am I in the right business? I am a terrible entrepeneur? Am I (fear above all fears) wrong for believing in myself and trying to make a living from something I enjoy? WHERE DID EVERYBODY GO???

But then January happens, and classes are bursting at the seams, and (better yet) everyone is so enthusiastic and ready to come back. New members come into our gym like meek little bunnies. Then they learn what they can potentially achieve, and they become full of hope and resolve. They suddenly realise that the power to change is all theirs, if they want to take it. I'm no fool, I know not everyone will stay the distance. But some of them will, and at this stage it's anyone's game. That's exciting (I think, I'm clearly a geek over my job). They become category 1 January Junkies like me.

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Whichever camp you fall into, January is undeniably hard bloody work. It's long and cold and it requires willpower just to get to the end without crawling under your duvet to hibernate until Spring. But hard work is really the only thing that gets results. And regardless of what you're aiming for, regardless of what drives you, if it takes a bit of January to give you that extra kick up the bum, then that's what it takes.

Now get out there and DO IT!