New Year… Old You?
January is typically awash with the theme of reset and refocus. But for many of us, we can find our verve, our zip, our spark, when we revert…
This is the introduction to January’s edition of the Off-Field newsletter, curating monthly tales from the fringes of sport and society. Read it here.
New Year, new you. Right?
“Every moment is a fresh beginning,” said T.S. Eliot. Another Eliot, George this time, said, “It is never too late to be what you might have been”. And then there’s the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, who probably stroked his wispy white beard before whispering, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
January is typically awash with the theme of reset and refocus. You’ve probably spotted a few of these uplifting quotes on social media recently, superimposed over waterfalls or clouds. The gyms are heaving, every treadmill pounding to the sound of a ‘ker-ching!’ as the number of new memberships is probably only pipped by the amount of us signing up for meal delivery plans.
Then there are the trips to the tip or the local charity shop, for a generous deposit of whatever it was in our wardrobe, shed, or garage that it felt necessary to shift as soon as Jools Holland played his last note of 2023. I’m just as guilty: anyone visiting the British Heart Foundation in Morpeth will find a dozen of my check shirts up for grabs.
But what’s often lost among the January yearning for a reboot is that, for many of us, we can find our verve, our zip, our spark, when we revert. Serenity isn’t always something you need to carve anew, it can just as easily be something you’ve done before. Probably something you left behind because, as The Rifles sang in Out in the Past, “life has a habit of getting in the way.”
So, what about New Year… old you?
For some, it might be picking the guitar up for the first time in a decade, and finding the time to get good at it again. For others, it’s playing football weekly and remembering why you did this every night on a muddy field until the light faded to black. It could be going to the movies to watch the latest blockbuster with nothing but a large Sprite and a packet of Revels for company.
Hell, it might even be playing computer games for the first time since your teens. There’s a stigma around adults who enjoy gaming, but do you think anyone is worried about their heating bills or passive-aggressive boss while they’re occupying the body of a cheery Italian plumber riding a small green dinosaur?
The privileged among us know where our serenity can be found. Those who’ve discovered the sweet spot that makes our shoulders relax, puts our breath at ease, and allows our mind to take a beat. (I’m the football example above, by the way. My body may no longer be teenage, but it’s been great to discover that endorphins don’t get old).
For those yet to find it, don’t feel obliged to follow the latest ‘high-performance’ mumbo jumbo being chirped out by pseudo-psychologists and grifting gobshites. A journey of a thousand miles might begin with a single step, but nothing is stopping that step from being backwards.
This month’s Off-Field centres around people who’ve found their serenity by running, cycling, singing, photographing, driving, or dressing up. Some have used it as a way to endure hardships that most of us couldn’t even imagine. Others, to try to make sense of the manic and often frightening world we live in. Most simply do what they do because they enjoy it. And it’s amazing what that’ll do for your health and wellbeing.
This is an excerpt from the Off-Field newsletter. Subscribe, for free, here
