You know you're going to break them -- but you've got to make them.
New Year's resolutions offer the promise of a thinner, nonsmoking, debt-free, more organized you. But when it comes to enacting change, our pledges are often as meaningful as Tiger Woods' wedding vows. That's because resolutions require action plans -- without them, they're nothing more than wishes. There it is in a nutshell: Resolutions take work.
That's bad news for those of us who can't bear one more chore in life. The good news: About 40 percent of the people who make resolutions are still successful after six months, according to University of Scranton (Pa.) researcher John Norcross, a clinical psychologist who has studied resolutions for 25 years. "It's an impressive and heartening figure," he said in an e-mail. "It reminds all of us that humans can and do successfully change their behavior."
And, he noted, research indicates that people who make resolutions are 10 times more likely to change than people who have the same goals and motivation, but don't.
The successful resolution-maker will set reasonable sights, allow at least three months to form a new habit and use a buddy system for support, academics say. For a little motivation on your vow for a fresh start, we offer suggestions from a few experts who make a living at helping others meet -- or exceed -- expectations.
Becoming fit: Use a specific plan with measurable goals, not a haphazard approach, for better health and prevention of diabetes, high blood pressure and disease, advise Jerzy and Aniela Gregorek, world-class weightlifting champions and authors of a new book, "The Happy Body" (Jurania Press; 288 pages). They combine education on nutrition, exercise and weight training and meditation in their 30-minute sessions with clients, as well as in their book.
For long-term success, don't pick exercises you hate, but those that bring you joy, whether kickboxing or dancing the tango. View a new eating plan not as deprivation, but as liberation: It takes the anxiety out of wondering what to eat to lose weight, and shifts the focus off of food addiction, they say.
As Jerzy notes in the book, "Becoming lean and fit is not a matter of training for a few weeks like Rocky to become a world champion. Real athletes ... (know) their progress comes in small increments, not heroic triumphs."
Hanging tough: Steve Siebold, a former pro tennis player who lectures to Fortune 500 sales teams, is author of "177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class" and 2009's "Die Fat or Get Tough: 101 Differences in Thinking Between Fat People and Fit People" (London House Press; 205 pages).
Whatever the goal, he frames his approach in terms of "middle-class thinking" versus "world-class thinking."
"The masses," he said, "think one way, and the top performers in any given field think a completely different way about the topic they succeed in."
A few of his mantras, based on 25 years as a coach: "Middle-class thinkers see diet and exercise as drudgery that can only be tolerated for short periods of time -- world-class thinkers see diet and exercise as a strategy for a lifetime to keep them healthy, looking good and feeling great."
"Expect to feel pain or suffer. Most people feel the pain or run into an obstacle and seek escape. Have a plan to push forward when this happens."
Behavioral change: San Francisco life coach Jeffrey Van Dyk (practicalvisionary.com) said people often focus on what they think they should do, not on what they want to do.
"When people make resolutions, there is part of them that wants it, and a part of them that doesn't -- and if you ignore those things, it comes back to bite you on the butt and you sabotage yourself," he said.
"Write down in a journal what you would need to be on board with your goal. When the two are in alignment, then your resolution comes with ease."
He recommends small steps, concrete goals and using a different method than you normally would. For example: Make a pact with a friend to save a specific amount of money in a defined quantity of time, rather than a vague vow to spend less and save more.
The right goal: Sonoma, Calif., psychologist Ofer Zur, who studies the ways that technology and Internet connectivity affect people and relationships, said people aim incorrectly with resolutions.
"You can't have enough of what you didn't want or didn't need in the first place," he said. "A real-estate mogul can build all the biggest, golden-plated towers in the world, but it won't make him more powerful ... When we put the target in the wrong place, we don't hit it."
He has a friend who doesn't exercise, but meditates, and defines that as achieving good health. "If you want a better work-life balance, and your work is meaningful and your children are tended to, who's to say what is overworking?" Zur asked.
"Gandhi worked 24/7, and probably Moses and Buddha, too. You find your own balance."
(E-mail Carolyne Zinko at czinko(at)sfchronicle.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)