Here are some of the resolutions Home Truths listeners have made this New Year:
Going on a diet, giving up smoking and getting fit - I make that one every year!
I try and avoid lying but only manage it for an hour!
I've tried to be more and more organised, but my family just laughed at me.
I've given up drinking and always stuck to it - I went until April 26th once.
Apparently only 38% of people in the US indicate they're likely to make a resolution - of the under 30s, 57% say they'll make a resolution whereas only 26% of the over 60s will bother...
"I used to be quite good and go on a diet and being quite puritanical. I just can't be bothered any more - great advantage of getting older, it's the triumph of experience over hope, really."
Number one aim is to spend less money, especially among men. Losing weight is the number one resolution among women. However although woman are more likely to make resolutions, men are apparently more likely to keep them.
I think it's a form of emotional therapy in the way that in primitive times they used to draw a picture of the animal they hoped they'd kill - But there's no real connection between our wish and the real world.
According to one expert, the end of the year is a paradox because one year is very old and another is very new. The only area where we have renewal and formality is that area of new year resolutions where you try to say it's not just another year but a new one. The Chinese have ferocious haircuts and cancel debts. Of course in America it's about the perfection of oneself.
Ultimately, of course, the key to success is making a resolution you can keep so finishing reading "Ulysses" is probably destined to fail.
