It’s finally the start of a new year which brings new beginnings and, of course, New Year’s resolutions. As a tradition, most people make a list of goals they want to achieve to celebrate the new year; but do they follow through with these promises?

According to a 2014 poll by the University of Scranton Psychology Department, 71% of Americans hold to these annual resolutions for the first two weeks.

Six months later, less than 50% of those surveyed actually upheld the resolutions.

Why aren’t we able to fulfill these promises? For starters, many of us set lofty goals or a multitude of wishes that may seem doable, but are unrealistic.

Another reason is that our resolutions start to become unimportant to us, and we become lazy as time goes by.

“Sometimes people make resolutions because everyone else is doing it,” said mathematics Chair Deb Costello, who has a minor in psychology.

“Sometimes they know they ‘should’ do something, but they don’t really want to do it.  Sometimes the resolution is a great idea, but there’s no plan for success and thus the person fails.”

We also tend to set nonspecific goals for ourselves. Setting ambitious goals can be fun and inspiring, but the difficulty in achieving them means that your elation can quickly give way to frustration.

In order to increase chances of success, goals should be made in a measurable way, in order to increase chances of success.

Just aiming to “get better grades” or “lose some weight” isn’t specific enough to be effective. Aim for a precise, yet small, goal that can be recorded or measured.

Some ways we can fulfill our annual goals are by focusing on one resolution rather than trying to make a whole list of things to achieve.

There will be more room to focus on one task, and it can be completed through small steps.

Otherwise, you might quit because the magnitude of the goal becomes overwhelming.

Don’t wait until the goal is finally completed to celebrate.

Celebrate your success at each milestone.

Positive feedback on any new habit will increase the likelihood of success.

Studies have shown that if people tell friends or family about their goal, it gives them an incentive to want to fulfill the task, because they are counted on to succeed.

“My New Year’s resolution is to clean my room every night, and I am able to keep up with this resolution lately,” freshman Sam DiMaio said. “In order to achieve resolutions, it’s important not to give into temptation and say, ‘this is too hard’ or ‘maybe next time.’”

DiMaio said to try mixing your resolution with something you like to do.

“If your resolution is to lose weight, you can run or walk on the treadmill while watching your favorite movie or tv show,” she said.

Despite our focus of goal making in the beginning of January, we shouldn’t make all of our resolutions at that one time.

We often have the mentality that right when January hits, new goals have to be started.

We should maintain that mentality throughout the whole year.

We can still make resolutions for the beginning of the new year, but should really make the majority of our resolutions in our daily lives.

“Stop making resolutions because it’s January.  People who make change in their lives are those who genuinely want this change for themselves and not because someone else told them it’s a good idea or because society wants it to happen,” Costello said.

“Life change requires commitment, sacrifice and hard work. You cannot be nagged into change or paid to do it. People make change when they are ready to do the work.”

So before we make a goal on getting a 100 on one of Mr. Krueger’s essays, we need to take baby steps to ultimately achieve our goal.