Do You Make New Year's Resolutions?

If you make New Year's resolutions, you only have a slight chance of keeping them. According to Real Science of Success, about 50 percent of Americans make New Year's Eve resolutions but only 15 percent manage to keep them.

New Year's Eve resolutions began around 4,000 B.C. when Babylonians began the new year by paying off debts and bringing back borrowed goods, according to an excerpt from Psychological Foundations of Success: A Harvard-Trained Scientist Separates the Science of Success from Self-Help Snake Oil, by Stephen Kraus, Ph.D. According to the book, about 2000 years later, the Romans started the new year by assessing the old year and vowing to accomplish more in the coming year. And we've been breaking these resolutions ever since.

Tip: try making resolutions for the month rather than for the year — you will have a higher chance of meeting them!