IT might just be an illusion, but it seems like there’s lots more people running on Orange’s footpaths in the mornings and evenings than there was a month ago.
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The surge in numbers for those hitting the footpaths for a run this year, as opposed to those who pounded the pavement in the last weeks of 2017, might have had something to do with the weather.
It might have had something to do with the fact there is less happening in Orange on the weekend in this early part of the year.
It might have just been that a lot of Orange residents woke up on a Saturday morning and all decided at the same time that it was a good day to burn some energy.
Or the big increase in numbers of runners might have had something to do with the fact we’re deep in new year resolution month.
Everyone knows new year resolution month.
It’s the month where enthusiastic drinkers empty the fridge of beer bottles and glumly sip cold water in front of the TV instead.
It’s the month where junk food addicts nibble morosely on salads in the office tea room and the perpetually unfit can be seen stalking around their neighbourhood in a brand new pair of joggers.
New year resolution month generally has four stages: enthusiasm, endurance, defeat and despair.
And that’s because it’s difficult trying to change the bad habits of 11-and-a-half months in one go.
New year resolution month encourages an all-or-nothing mindset: either complete sobriety (or fitness or a sugar-free diet) or a resigned slide into the way things were before.
Complete devotion to the new you or a melancholy acceptance that the old you was never going to go quietly anyway.
With February on the horizon and many a resolution having died a quiet death during the past three weeks, maybe a new month can be a chance to do things differently.
February can be the month not of big changes, but of small ones. Not of complete life makeovers, but of small life renovations.
Many a statistic says Australians’ general health is – to put it bluntly – a concern.
There would be few of us who couldn’t do with a tweak here or there to be a bit healthier and a bit happier.
February might be the month. A month for small victories, not big ones. And the occasional run.
