For well over three years, I have worked in the public domain by supporting people in building their mental and physical strength (more about this below), plus showing them the requisite skills to find paid work.

I was at an end-of-year party this week and was awestruck when one of the speakers congratulated me (and, incidentally, two hundred additional attendant people) for offering myself for public service. Obviously, I know I am called a ‘public servant,’ but it had not occurred, until I heard it said out loud, just how much the emphasis of what we do is flagged up as being of service to the populace.

For someone who had previously been rather rude about ‘the public’ and what I have always perceived as a conglomerate of ignoramuses who gravitate towards the rest of the dull herd, this, rather ironically, made me feel good.

I confess that some of this feel-good factor is egotistical (quite a lot of it in fact), but if I am actually DOING something good, does it matter if it creates a sense of imposter’s glory? In short, even if people like me, the teachers, carers, and paramedics are primarily working to earn a salary, the fact that our output is helpful is surely a wonderful thing.

Don’t smirk at the Holistic, it’s all true.

One of the newer work roles I have recently taken on is delivering, together with a couple of other colleagues, a presentation to people over 50 years of age. It is a way to help them ‘check-in’ with themselves and to establish some practicality for what is basically, the last 40 years (at best!) of their lives.

We discuss contributing to and eventually qualifying for pensions, what skills older people probably need to get (back) into work and the highs and lows of ageing in the modern world.

The subtle motive behind my particular section, amusingly labelled Health and Wellbeing, is to guide people towards the right mind-set, in other words, getting them to buy into the fact they need to start working because even when they reach the ever-retreating age of qualifying for the state pension, it still won’t be enough to support them.

It’s always important to create a bond with your delegates (this builds trust and gets them to interact more intently). I usually begin my section by confessing that I am already a pensioner. I prove the point by listing my current ailments, such as backache, creaking knees, and fears of a feeble memory. This self-deprecation is enough for people to accept me as genuine (which, of course, I am) and get them on my side from that point onwards.

The reality is that as we get older, things tend to hurt more profoundly, more randomly and dissipate more slowly. The more physical pain people experience, the more our heads hurt too. This in turn, drags in emotional pain hiding under the opaque cowls of anxiety and depression.

In short, once one thing begins to go wrong, everything else, like my friends, the annoying members of the public gather and multiply to form a mass of confusion.

And the solution is?

To listen to the strands of advice that flap in the winds and to grab just one at a time. Whether or not you’re entering 2025 with a resolution, the best advice is the oldest; tackle your obstacles in small steps. Get help if you can because wherever you live there are people willing and able to help.

The hardest bit is to acknowledge you are needy and to say it aloud.

We think the Domino Effect is negative because its visuals show the bricks toppling down. But if we think of the dominoes as dreadful things, fixing one at a time will work the other way too. As each problem is toppled, it can knock its partner in crime down too.