This week’s column is brought to you by The Socialite’s latest creative addition to our team, none other than Durban’s own Oscar Anderson who will be delivering his weekly editions of love, life and everything in between in The Game Changer. Check out his debut column below with this week’s edition entitled Starting with a Bang…

Being the beginning of the year we should all be familiar with bringing in the New Year with fireworks and celebrations, in some cases a sneaky skinny dip here and there, but that story is for another time. The fireworks celebrate a closure and celebration of the old year and the start to the new, like the starting gun of a race. Although the end and the participants is never clear in the race, we all seem eager to start and make a series of plans as to how we will get to the finishing line.

They say that resolutions are just what we call the first two weeks of January, that’s like an athlete giving up after the first hurdle. The national cricket side has had their twitter accounts ending with #noexcuses , what a great resolution, although they didn’t even make January 1^st with their resolution when they dropped the proverbial ball in the second test, but they have at least picked up their heads since. #noexcuses can be adopted into all of our personal goals, yes it will be tough to lose those 10kg’s we want, to sacrifice personal time to spend more time with the family, to read more, smoke less or whatever race you have set before you.

I find it easier to change the goal posts and make excuses to yourself when you are not accountable; the national cricket side have many people to be accountable to, the fans being at the top of the selector’s panel. Imagine every time you indulged in that extra piece of cake during your diet that you lost your position at work, bet you would stick to your diet faster than your boss. Game on now, isn’t it? I was watching my six year old nephew the other day, all he wants to be is the fastest, strongest, tallest, first in line and for everyone to watch him. I don’t really mind if he beats me to the car or finishes his dessert first, what I want to know is when did my zeal for life start fading, why can’t I reach my goal without making adjustments to suit my ill-disciplined approach?

The thing with a bang is that it is only loud for just a moment, and after your ears have stopped ringing and the girl next to you loosens her grip on your arm then everything returns back to normal. Perhaps it should be rolling thunder that we start and end off with, something continuous that constantly reminds us of where we are going, something that grabs her hand and squeezes back. You can promise your New Year’s kiss the world at that very moment and between the booze and pretty lights she will believe you, but how you manage to deliver and keep her at least until January 3^rd is up to you.

It’s easy to sweet talk yourself into what you want, but just like the sweet talker who can’t deliver, you are going to get slapped. And do not worry about the resolution you have just given up on, they have a strong counselling facility for all the lost kg’s you will eventually put back on, besides there is always next year, right? Rather worry about how easy it was to give up on yourself. So my final question is what will you start your year off with, a bang? Hugh Heffner started his off with three but I can assure you that it didn’t last very long.

So be the fastest, the best, make people watch you be the first. Show not only them what you can do, show yourself.