Road to Rio: Diver Jack Laugher embarks on a big year in the pool

It does make this year’s Olympics a whole lot more real now when you see 2016 on your phone or on a calendar.

Obviously this is a big year in the pool so we were all back in training pretty much immediately after Christmas. I think it was January 2 so it was a case of no rest for the wicked.

I’m not really big on New Year so I just went to dinner with my girlfriend and then to some friends but it was nothing crazy and I was in bed by 12.30am.

My life is always like that to be honest, I don’t drink or do anything like that but it was lovely to spend time with the people I love and I think that’s what the festive season is all about.

I’m pretty hard to buy gifts for because I usually just buy myself things so I’ve got no exotic or exiting presents to report this year - just a pair of kitchen tongs and something to line my oven with.

I bought myself the new Star Wars game over the break which I love but I have to confess that I have never seen any of the films.

I know it’s crazy and I probably shouldn’t admit it but now that I’ve got the game I definitely think I will be checking them out.

I wouldn’t mind watching them in order so I don’t know if I’ll catch the latest one at the cinema. But when I can I’ll do a big marathon of them all and I’ll be all up to date when the next one comes out. That leaves me a fair amount of time.

I guess there will probably be a lot of people struggling with New Year’s resolutions around this time of January but I would say stick with it and don’t give up.

As an athlete I know all too well how hard it is when you stop and lose momentum with training or exercise, so it’s important to keep going and push through those hard times.

My resolution this year is just to be a bit tidier and more organised and so far so good but we will have to wait and see if I can keep it going.

We have got the British National Diving Cup this weekend and they are such an important way to open the season.

If you don’t do Nationals you end up doing international competitions without having had that first competition under your belt.

So I’m hoping to go there and put in a strong performance. Obviously you never know what’s going to happen but the performance is the main thing for me.

In all honesty, there’s so much to do before the Olympic Games in Rio with the World Series and European Championships before there isn’t time to think about the Olympics right now.

I think that the main thing is just to make sure you treat it like any other season. 2015 was huge for me and I want to build on that.

l Aldi are proud supporters of Team GB. Read more from Jack Laugher at www.teamgb.com/homegrownheroes.