How are your New Year’s Resolutions going? Statistically, they fail by the 4 January, so if you are achieving success at this point, you are doing well! Human nature is such that we find it incredibly hard to give up the habits we adopt: drinking, smoking, overeating, television... We set ourselves goals to conquer them, and feel a failure when we don’t succeed.

 

You may have opted for an achievement resolution – learning a new language, or taking up a hobby. With the right framework in place, this could work out more easily and prove rewarding. My own resolution was set for me, through a conversation at a party, when someone challenged me to deal with an area of my professional life where fear was holding me back. Importantly though, he also offered training in this, so I stand a chance of getting there.

 

Much has changed since Biblical times, but not the human condition. Romans 7 reminds us: For I don't do what I would like to do, but instead I do what I hate. 

 

We all recognise that change is difficult, and many of us only manage it when our backs are truly against the wall. How much harder, therefore, if you add the illness of addiction into the mix? At The Living Room, a local addiction charity, we see clients who experience an unbearable pull in the wrong direction. But we can offer them hope, the support of a group environment and the courage to face their fears.