Share your New Year's Resolution [0].  

It's that time of year again.

After a indulging in all manner of holiday buffets, Christmas cookies and cups of eggnog, all of us have the opportunity to make amends by resolving to eat healthier in coming year.

Or to make up for maxing out our credit cards, we resolve to trim the fat. After draping Christmas lights around the house (and feeling really guilty about it), we might resolve to turn off the lights when we leave a room.

These aren't bad resolutions, of course. But a lot of us are cynical about them because they never seem to stick. Despite the failure rate [0], I usually give it a shot, even though most of us learned long ago that New Year's resolutions are a tricky business [0].

Whenever I've resolved to make sweeping changes in my life, I have found that sheer force of will is never powerful enough to do the trick. Then, because I am failing, I forget my good intentions and they fall by the wayside, forgotten or ignored.

Nonetheless, I like the idea of starting the new year with good intentions. So over the years, I've developed a New Year's strategy: Keep the resolutions small and manageable.

For instance, a good resolution for me would be to drink more water. A bad resolution would be to attempt to summit Mt. Everest this year, or even go to the gym [0] every single day. I see no reason to set myself to fail.

Resolving to put aside some spare change for a good cause sounds more plausible than resolving to adopt an African child. Resolving to recycle office paper is one thing; resolving to build a wind turbine so I can live off the grid is quite another.

Admittedly, I'm willing to set the bar pretty low, and that's a bit embarrassing. But it's better than starting the new year knowing that defeat is certain and imminent.

Besides, 2007 looks a lot brighter when I know I can keep a few small promises that I make to myself.