Jack Anderson: Better books in 2025; better habits in 2026

I tried meditation. Didn't work. Set my mind a-whirring. Could you play both Parrott and Ferguson up front against Czechia? Will Watford make the play-offs? Surely there’s one more in Limerick’s hurlers?

Oisin Murphy is crowned Champion Jockey for the fifth time at Ascot in October, and above, his book ‘Sacrifice’. He is probably Irish sport’s most underestimated star, writes our columnist. Pic: Healy Racing

At the end of the year, you look forward to beginning anew. Resolutions are made, soon to be broken. I promise myself to begin more days with a cycle to work and less ending with a sneaky pint. That lasts about a week in the baking January sun of Australia as I wobble home on the bike looking like a lost extra from Mad Max.

Sleep more. Work less. Be more present. Be less distracted. Busted promises of the past and soon again in the future. Others have been abandoned long ago.