Making New Year’s resolutions is not a new fangled modern invention. The tradition actually began in ancient Babylonia approximately 4,000 years ago, according to an article on the Kansas City Public Library website. Babylonians celebrated the New Year on March 23 and one of their most popular resolutions was to return something borrowed from a friend during the previous year. The ancient Romans also made New Year’s resolutions and one of their most common resolutions was quite sensible - they asked forgiveness from enemies of the past year. The ancient Chinese made the most practical New Year’s resolutions - housecleaning.

Every year many of us make New Year’s resolution, although personally I gave it up years ago. The 10 most common New Year’s resolutions listed below are as a result of a survey conducted by 10millionresultions.com, which tabulated over 300,000 responses worldwide.

1. Lose Weight and Get in Better Physical Shape
2. Stick to a Budget
3. Debt Reduction
4. Enjoy More Quality Time with Family & Friends
5. Find My Soul Mate
6. Quit Smoking
7. Find a Better Job
8. Learn Something New
9. Volunteer and Help Others
10. Get Organized

If you are like most people, you land up making the same resolutions year after year. You start off like gangbusters and then slowly but surely you land up right back where you started. According to a University of Washington study the difference between success and failure are a few simple steps.

•    Have a strong initial commitment to make a change.
•    Have coping strategies to deal with problems that will come up.
•    Keep track of your progress. The more monitoring you do and feedback you get, the better you will do.