NEW year, new me. Is there a more irritating phrase to be found at the start of each and every calendar year?

No sooner has the smoke settled from the firework displays on the Thames and the party debris been swept up and tidied away, than the infamous line is wheeled out like some sort of involuntary reaction to the clock striking midnight on December 31.

I’ve never really been one to make new year’s resolutions, so it isn’t something that would ever pass my lips – not even ironically.

On face value, the idea of making some sort of sweeping statement about improving your life just because 365 days have inevitably ticked by once again has some merits.

It can give you a goal, something to aspire to with another year lying ahead, and that should be admired.

But realistically, it is too knee-jerk and far too vague to claim some reinvention of yourself just because you happen to be nursing a hangover, probably much like you have for the last umpteen years.

‘Be a nicer person’, ‘eat less junk food’, ‘take more exercise’, ‘drink less’. Invariably they all end up on the scrapheap by the end of the first week.

Is it not enough to simply enjoy the fact that the unstoppable march of time has presented you with another 12 months in which to have fun and try to do as much as possible? Why put unnecessary pressure on yourself?

We also live fast-paced lives, so step back and realise that you will most likely eat that packet of chocolate digestives or polish off the booze in the fridge and realise, it is part of living.

A year is a long time, with plenty of opportunities to try to better yourself, without having to go on hunger strike or sign up to a gym membership that you will grow to resent within a month.

Each year I have goals and plans that I set out loosely and want to achieve but by no means do I reach all of these targets, and nor would I label them resolutions.

It is perfectly natural to have these aims but I don’t think it is a healthy approach to make it the be-all and end-all to chalk them off at the expense of everything else.

If you want to do something it will probably happen naturally and eventually without having to pin your colours to the mast on January 1 in some outdated ritual.