What a boring world it would be if everyone fulfilled their New Year resolutions.

Exercising regularly, everyone would be super-fit, slim and trim. We would all be jogging daily and making the most of gym memberships.

Eating healthily, people would shun cakes, crisps, take-aways and chocolate in favour of boiled potatoes, eggs and leafy greens. Sales of all things fattening would plummet, putting thousands of companies out of business.

Alcohol would be cut out or sipped with a meal, not glugged down in copious amounts like there's no tomorrow. Inhibitions would never be lost, not even at office parties.

We would pamper ourselves day and night, cleansing and toning with a vengeance. Blackheads would become a thing of the past.

No late nights for us under our new regimes. As the saying goes: ‘Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.’

We would all be bounding around like cheerleaders, fresh-faced and bushy-tailed, reaping the rewards of healthy living.

People would become so organised that you would never again hear anyone utter the words: “Where did I put my keys?” or “Help, I’ve forgotten to do that.”

We would have the partners of our dreams, the satisfying jobs we crave and spend our spare time enjoying exciting new hobbies or rewarding voluntary work.

Of course it would be great to achieve some of these things, but for many typical New Year resolutions, life is too short. You have to draw the line somewhere. To me a world without cake, without wine, with no slobbing out in front of the TV munching biscuits…that’s removing most of the things that I enjoy.

New Year goals are always so predictable: lose weight, get fit, look after ourselves, find Mr Right, get organised…

Of course, it is very sensible to cut down on alcohol, and stopping smoking is, quite rightly, still high on people's New Year agendas. But surely these things, which can impact seriously upon your health, should be addressed whether it is the beginning of the year or not.

It strikes me as strange that what I see as people's worst and most antisocial habit appears to be ignored in lists of top New Year’s resolutions.

No-one seems to be making an effort to reduce their dependency on the internet. Special treatment clinics which began in China - the first country to label online addiction a disorder - are now appearing in the UK to help adults and children reduce time spent staring at a screen.

Yet, as a new year begins, I have yet to hear of anyone actively pledging to try and cut down. Maybe people don’t see it as a problem.

But then you also have to remember that most resolutions that made are broken within a fortnight. Research carried out last year by an online - you can’t escape it - fitness network, found that Friday January 12 was the day when motivation began to falter. They labelled the second Friday in January ‘Quitters' Day’ as people gave up their resolutions in droves.

So, for those of us who do make pledges, we are likely to spend almost two weeks on the path towards achieving the ‘perfect me/perfect lifestyle’ we think we want, before we give up.

That's not too long a time to cut out the food I enjoy and replace it with lettuce soup, and to get off the sofa and have a go at running around the block once a day. I might just manage it. On the 12th I can then celebrate my release with a couple of vanilla slices and a glass or three of wine.