James Proclaims!

Hello 2026!

I have high hopes for you.

Then again I had high hopes for 2025. And 2024. And all the other years that have been a part of my existence.

Well, not all of them. I’m not sure how aware I was of the formative ones. I wasn’t even around for the start of 1979, so we shouldn’t count that one, but I’m fairly sure the concept of time was beyond me for much of the early 80s. I think I remember some of 1984. I know enough to know it wasn’t like the book 1984.

And, while I would never wish to blame an arbitrary period of time for my shortcomings, it would be fair to say that many of the years I’ve been a part of, have not fully delivered on their potential.

I’m not sure when I started making New Year resolutions. Or when I stopped taking them seriously.

But certainly as long as I’ve been an adult, I’m sure I’ve made some kind of pledge to be a better version of me on the 1st January, and I’m fairly sure I haven’t stuck to any resolution I’ve ever made.

If I’ve achieved any, it’s generally been more by luck than judgement.

Or because I set the bar really low.

On this blog I seem to alternate between setting a very low bar, or setting an impossibly high bar.

It’s all in fun though. I couldn’t possibly be expected to take any pledges I make on the first day of the year too seriously. There are far too many pitfalls in the form of chocolate and alcohol in my home for me to be overly successful at anything until February at the earliest.

Still, it is important that I make some kind of pledge today, if only to acknowledge that it is the beginning of a new year and also to acknowledge that I could and should do better. Because nothing starts a new year off on a more positive note than the public recognition of one’s deficits.

As ever, I start the year with a desire to lose a bit of weight, deal with some of the overdue repairs and renovations needed in my house and to try and write a bit more often.

I’m fairly sure I’ll be able to copy and paste the above paragraph into next year’s January 1st post.

In truth, there are a lot of things I would like to achieve in 2026, but I don’t want to curse any of my endeavours by actually writing about them.

I could try and go for something sincere like, ‘learning to enjoy the moment’. I should try and do more of that.

Then again, there are quite a lot of moments in life that are not enjoyable, and there is no lens you can view those moments through that make them any better than the veritable train wrecks they are.

So ‘learning to enjoy some moments’ seems far more achievable but in many ways I’m already there. I’ve always enjoyed the moments that are actually enjoyable.

I would like to spend time with my family, but I do a fair bit of that already. Spending more time with my family might not be good for any of us. I’m not sure my family even want to see any more of me than they currently do.

Still I feel I should commit to something here and now. I don’t want to shortchange this post. I came here to make some resolutions and some resolutions I shall make.

So these are my sincere and heartfelt resolutions for 2026 that I am fully prepared to commit to:

1. Wear more fun socks. Life is too short for boring socks. Not odd socks though. I don’t hold with that kind of anarchy.
2. Drink more fluids. Ideally water. The benefits of drinking water are well-documented. But in the absence of water, wine remains an option.
3. Eat a balanced diet. By which I mean that any broccoli I consume must be matched by the equivalent number of grams of chocolate.
4. Sleep 8 hours a day. Ideally during the working day.
5. Teach a man to fish, because apparently that’s quite a good thing to do.
6. Learn to fish so I can teach a man to fish.
7. Swap a bird in the hand for two in the bush, then hold those birds in my hands and swap them for four in the bush and eventually acquire enough birds to open my own aviary.
8. Ask no questions.
9. Learn to better understand common proverbs.
10. Ensure all lists I make have at least ten items on them, even if I need to artificially create a tenth item.

That’ll do. I’m sure I’ll achieve the ‘socks’ one.