Have you set any new year’s resolutions this year? We all know that thousands of people will have already chosen their resolutions and many of them will be among the most popular new year’s resolutions that people select every year and in many cases don't keep.

According to the website New Year’s Resolution Week the most popular ones include:

• losing weight and getting into better physical shape
• sticking to a budget
• reducing debts , spending more time with friends
• and family, finding a soul mate, giving up smoking
• finding a better job
• getting organised
• learning something new,
• volunteering and helping others

Pretty standard stuff and no real surprises in that list. I certainly recognise trying a few of those (and not achieving them). Of course part of the reason why so many people don’t actually succeed with their resolutions, is because they’re not resolutions in the first place.

A resolution in this context means making a firm decision to do something. However, many people actually don’t make a decision but actually have a vague wish with no real thought or planning about how to make it a reality.

The impact of thinking you have set a resolution that is a wish is that you’re inevitably setting yourself up for failure. And what’s the effect of the failure? Well although many people might treat it as a bit of a joke if they only manage to give up smoking for a couple of hours or days, or don’t use the gym membership they’ve signed up to, or they’re still stuck in the same dead end job at the end of the year, it can really affect your self esteem. And loss of self esteem easily creeps from one area of your life to another.

So after that gloomy pronouncement am I advocating that setting resolutions is a waste of time? No I’m not, but I do think you have to set them with honesty, a touch of realism and clarity about what you want and how you’re going to get it.

If you’ve decided you’re going to get fit this year that’s just a wish. Be specific and break it down into what that means to you, what you will need to do to achieve it and what difference it will have in your life when you’ve got there. And if you’re choosing things because it’s what other people think you ought to do, or you think you ought to rather than want to you’re wasting your time.

By thinking it through properly you should be able to draw up a set of goals and set yourself an action plan which will set you on the path to success for the coming year.

So what resolutions have you set for this year?