New year's resolutions 2016 in review - 6

6. Stop being a shy idiot on the rare occasions I meet a single man – SUCCESS

This resolution was all about communication. Having been single for more years than I'd care to admit, I'd become aware the reason was as much my own fault as it was a lack of there being any decent single men around.

The problem was, I'd meet a man and get on fine with him but the moment I discovered he was single – irrespective of how attractive he was or wasn't – I'd turn into an idiot. If I liked him I'd fail to utter an intelligent word in his presence and if I didn't like him I'd be so relaxed about not caring what he thought that I'd accidentally look like I was chatting him up.

Somewhere along the way (and with a little help from some of the worse examples of humanity) I'd simply forgotten to remember single men are people too.

A lot of my success with this resolution is probably because after so many years alone I was able to start 2016 thinking I no longer cared if I met someone or not. The few men who had paid me attention were either married (I'm not going there) or so not for me I wasn't willing to give up my own singleness to be with them, so why should I bother worrying if a man is single or not? I resolved to simply accept all men as friends and that was that.

The decision came as quite a relief and probably made me a much more sane person to talk to if you happened to be a single man who crossed my path in the first part of 2016 and beyond.

It also meant that when I finally did meet a good man I was so busy simply enjoying life I didn't even realise I was on a date. We've been together almost eight months now, having previously known each other in passing for two years. I wonder how many more years we'd have passed each other by if I hadn't taken on this resolution?

The success of this resolution also impacted on all the ones listed after it.

Read the next one: 5. Lose all the weight I put on since moving to TW