So everywhere we look we're bombarded by the idea that we should use the turning of the year to start a new life, to make new resolutions, to turn over a new leaf.

Well, you know what? I've had enough of it!

This flipping over a calendar's page – or in this case, the archiving of the old calendar to leave an almost exactly identical family diary in sole possession of the hall table means precisely nothing in terms of me suddenly becoming a different person.

In 2016 I will almost certainly lose a few pounds and gain a few pounds. I will have periods of healthy eating and periods where I slump into cooking easy convenience meals. There will be weeks at a time when I visit the gym regularly and then weeks or months when I don't.

And there will almost certainly be weeks or months when I have to cope with depression. It's probably the same for most of you.

I don't want to sound gloomy or defeatist about this. For me it's a fact of life.

And I'm already pretty proud of how I deal with it.

In fact, not wanting to blow my own trumpet or anything, but I'm pretty proud of the way I deal with the majority of life. I'd like to carry on doing more of the same, please.

There are a few resolutions of course. Having Tom home for Christmas (his first Christmas with us as his family) has brought home a few improvements we can make. We have resolved to all be a bit kinder and more polite to each other. We hadn't realised how our robust manner within the family was distressing to our lovely Tom. He's right – we could all be a lot gentler.

I've set up in the diary some business planning meetings with a friend who operates a business similar to mine and whose goals, like mine, are not about money. We both find planning difficult, so we're helping each other.

Tom, being a teacher, has also made sure that we are viewing each tiny improvement as a win because it's progress. None of us can hope to lose twenty pounds overnight. None of us can become proficient ice-skaters in a week, or have achieved our financial goals in a fortnight (although we can dream). What we can do is make progress. We can make tiny steps.

We will still be the same old us. There is no magical new you at the end of the rainbow along with the unicorn and tickets to the Beatles Reunion Concert. But the same old you can look forward and make progress.

What there can be is one baby step forward after another baby step forward. We might slip back sometimes, but what matters is to keep an open mind to making new improvements and to keep going.

I'll let you know how I'm getting on. Why not comment and let me know how you're doing?

Mary

A Moodscope member.