“New Year’s Day is every man’s birthday.”  - Charles Lamb

Yes, I’m one of those suckers who makes New Year’s resolutions. I’ve always loved a good makeover story and the New Year always brings out my desire for a fresh start. Of course, I’m not alone in this point of view. According to Health Net, around 100 million Americans make resolutions; however, about four out of every five people who participate in this annual tradition don’t see their resolutions through.

The resolution I made last year to work out more led to a new kind of failure, as I decided to chronicle my early attempts on Twitter, only to let the goal fall by the wayside in early February. Sure glad I put that out there for everyone to see…

So, my first tweak to my resolutions this year is to not share them with the whole world, but I am going to let a couple people in on my plan. I’m taking a cue from my mom on this one: she meets with the same friend every year to look back on the previous year’s resolutions and to make new ones.

For more hints on keeping resolutions, I turned to the Internet. Googling “New Year’s resolutions” brings up a deluge of results, so I’ve tried to simplify it here by sharing some of my favorites.

The first advice that I like comes from Health Matters magazine. Kimberley Mendelsohn, CPT, outlines three basic steps for keeping resolutions:

1. List: Here, you list out all the goals you want to set for yourself in 2010. Most of us will have no problem with this step, I’m sure.

2. Analyze: This is the tricky part: narrow down the list you just made to two. What are the most important things you need to change or improve upon?

3. Create a Plan: Now that you have your two goals in mind, make a detailed but realistic plan for achieving them. The more in depth you go, the more manageable the resolutions will seem.

Another article I liked gave 10 secrets from a psychologist, Professor Wiseman, about how to succeed when making New Year resolutions. Here are a few that I plan to keep in mind this year:

-Don’t run with the crowd and go with the usual resolutions. Instead think about what you really want out of life.

-Tell your friends and family about your goals, thus increasing the fear of failure and eliciting support.

-Regularly remind yourself of the benefits associated with achieving your goals by creating a checklist of how life would be better once you obtain your aim.

-Make your plans and progress concrete by keeping a hand-written journal, completing a computer spreadsheet or covering a notice board with graphs or pictures.

Finally, here a are a few websites recommended by MakeUseOf.com to aid you in keeping your resolutions this year:

HassleMe
HassleMe will constantly send email reminders at random intervals to help you from slipping into complacency.

Resnooze
With Resnooze you can set up daily, weekly or monthly email reminders for recurring tasks, which could include resolutions. In each email you can edit the frequency or delete the reminder.

Remindr
Remindr can send simultaneous reminders on Twitter, your email, and cell phone. This is simple to use, but it has to be set up again and again.

What’s your plan for keeping your 2010 resolutions? Let us know in the comments.

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