Are our New Year’s resolutions too big, too ambitious and too unrealistic?

At long, long last, the year draws to a close. The last pages for the year will soon be ripped out of the calendar, and 2017 will saunter off to collect his MPF payout and join all the other retirees in the park to play Chinese chess. Waiting in the wings to take his place is a young, callow 2018, clad in a slightly-too-shiny suit from G2000.

It has certainly felt like a very long year. One year into a Trump presidency, the world seems to be inching ever closer to chaos. Two nuclear-equipped leaders are working through their issues on a stage of mutually assured destruction. Brexit is bearing a remarkable similarity to the disaster that many predicted. Even Aung San Suu Kyi’s star has fallen – and she has a Nobel Peace Prize. Closer to home, Hong Kong has celebrated the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the SAR, and we’ve even picked up a new leader along the way. But tensions continue to run deep in the city, and divisions are widening. It seems safe to predict that the Nobel committee won’t be looking at Hong Kong when it’s time to select the next awardee.

Yes, if we concentrate on the bigger picture, it can all look rather bleak. It’s one of the reasons we’re all so keen on making New Year’s resolutions. They’re a promise to yourself, not to the rest of the world: to lose weight, eat better, stop drinking, hit the gym, get back in touch with old friends – to do things that are, at least ostensibly, under your control.

But the problem with most New Year’s resolutions is that they’re just too big. It’s too easy to set ourselves unrealistic goals, and then tumble off the wagon after a couple of weeks – especially in the land of pineapple buns, mooncakes and free-flow brunches.

“Oh well,” we think, “I’ll try again in another 12 months.” Besides, when the world is trundling off to destinations infernal in a handcart, it’s hard to believe in positive change. Who could possibly begrudge you another drink?