I was lucky enough to spend Christmas in Australia last year.

It’s a place that if you love sport, you are never left wanting. I’m a big cricket fan and I happened to arrive on the first day of the Twenty20 Big Bash League when Kevin Pietersen smashed 66 off 40 balls.

Cricket is on the television at 7pm every night and having watched a few live games at the MCG with my friend and Crook cricketer Steve Chapman, who was good enough to put me up while I was there, I didn’t want to come home.

I also learned a few things while Down Under. Keeping fit, active and taking part is sport is so much easier when the sun is shining and the weather is warm – or so you might think.

It makes what you do each week – perhaps each day – even more commendable as it’s so much harder to commit to that Sunday morning game of football, a run after work or an early morning swim when the weather is cold and wet and the days are short and dark.

When your alarm goes off at 7am and you look outside at the dark, damp and freezing conditions, it’s very easy to think that people in sunnier climes like Australia have it a lot easier and conditions are more favourable for success – but it’s not always the case.

Sure, the Aussies have better weather, more modern swimming facilities and even outdoor gyms in parks provided for free by the local councils, and they definitely have a much more active society as a whole.

But when you’re in places like that you realise that they often wish for the type of weather that we’re so used to– particularly when it comes to soccer.

The temperature on the opening day of pre-season in Adelaide tipped 42 degrees and training had to start at 5.30 am just avoid things like heat exhaustion and dehydration.

Even the cricketers were affected. I got to catch up with another friend of mine playing in a local leagues , Oliver Mole, the opening bowler of NYSD league club Hartlepool, and his training was cut from its usual three hours to just one on the very same day for the same reasons.

The moral of this week’s article is this: It might be cold, wet, dark and damp, or even icy in the UK for the next few weeks. It’s always tempting to give it a miss.

However, the reality is that no matter where you live, what time of the year it is or what the weather conditions are – everyone has their own obstacles to face and it’s just a case of finding a way around it, make the best of the conditions you are working with.

It’s definitely something to think about that will hopefully increase your motivation in 2015.