Dodge ritual humiliation of failure by doing nothing

Well, here we are again. The time of year when I have to endure the endless mockery about my latest attempts to better myself by taking up a new challenge, then failing miserably. As my regular reader is all too aware, the most expensive of these was my attempt to learn the piano after giving up lessons in my youth. I bought a piano and set about having lessons, only to find that I was utterly rubbish and utterly impatient. All those years I thought my giving up was a tragedy for music-lovers everywhere and it turned out my trying to play was a tragedy. I was left with a very costly item of furniture which is now used to leave stuff on.

Unfortunately, I am not one of those people who is spurred on by such setbacks. Instead, I have embraced a policy whereby I turn my nose up at any new year/new me shenanigans.

As far as I’m concerned, Veganuary, Dry January etc should be replaced by Mind-your-ownbusinessuary.

If I was doing any of those things, I would be doing so under the radar to lessen the public humiliation of inevitable failure (I’m not, though).

Whilst this attitude has left me with a low bar in the self-improvement stakes, it’s also left me with a feeling that anything is possible, as no one (including myself) is waiting for me to fail. I now have free rein to imagine all the new skills and challenges I have yet to discover…

Yikes! It’s happening again! What’s wrong with me?

I’m in danger of getting carried away again by the scope for self-improvement. I seem to have come fullcircle from the piano experience and am now getting a bit giddy at the prospect of becoming fluent in several languages and signing up for art classes.

Hmmmm, whilst I’m at it, I might as well dust off the piano-for-beginners books and risk the mockery of friends and family who like to marvel at my involuntary tendency to have my tongue sticking out the side of my mouth as I concentrate on the chords. I mean, what do I have to lose?

Certainly not my dignity.

I now have free rein to imagine all the new skills I have yet to discover