Wishing You An Acceptable New Year

The key to staying sane is managing expectations

It’s 2023 but making resolutions is like making lists: you’re setting yourself up to fail. Planning for a bullet-proof, high achieving, relentlessly happy 12 months is insanity. My only ambition is to just keep going. There will be bad days, there will be good days, there will be moments when everything looks hopeless and other times when life just seems to breeze along nicely without you barely noticing - like one of those sweetly struck volleys that you hardly feel leave your boot before it ripples the net (I’ve never actually hit one of those personally but I’ve heard people talking about them).

No matter how much you plan, life will always meander unpredictably and kick you in the bollocks when you’re least expecting it. So your only resolution can be to roll with the punches as best you can, savour the good moments (without letting them go to your head) and have faith that the bad moments will eventually pass.

I find it helpful to look out for the beauty and brilliance in the every day. If you get a buzz off a nice cup of tea, a jog round the park, a once round the living room with the vacuum while listening to the Pointer Sisters on your headphones, then you’ll never be short of the odd smile. Sorry if that sounds like twee bollocks but it honestly is the sort of stuff that steers me through difficult times.

Anyway, I just got a puppy which I am hoping will have a positive impact on my mental health in the coming year. So many of my guests on The Reset podcast have told me how owning a dog has helped sort their heads out. In the end, the positive reviews of dog ownership were just too overwhelming to ignore. So I went online and found a Cockapoo breeder in Norfolk. I can’t tell you how much this canine set me back because, frankly, I am embarrassed by it. In the eighties I’m sure dogs were free. Thatcher must have privatised them at some point.

I just hope I get a decent return on my investment. I pictured dog life as long meditative walks along the river and life-affirming cuddles in front of the fire. So far, it’s been more about wiping up piss from the kitchen floor and being unable to sleep at night. But the breeder doesn’t offer refunds, I checked. So if anyone can get in touch and explain to me how things will get easier as the puppy grows up, I’ll be very appreciative. It’s a good job that Cookie (that’s her name) is so fucking adorable, if not I might have chucked her out by now.

Still, like I said at the top, nothing is perfect, things don’t always work out neatly like in a movie and having a dog, like life itself, is just like ploughing through a tin of Quality Street. You’ve got to put up with the orange creams if you want to enjoy them big purple ones with the nut inside.

Anyway, it being that time of the year, I’ve done a quick round up of my favourite books and music of 2022 below. It’s by no means definitive, some of the books weren’t even published in 2022 (I just happened to read them last year). I understand that we might have completely different taste in books and music so feel free to ignore this list or roll your eyes/sneer. Whatever.

Be lucky.

Sam

PS - don’t forget to pre-order my book which is out in Feb.

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