>>> The main reason I believe that most of these resolutions don't have a lot of staying power is because they come from a place of "I have to" rather than "I want to."

That is an interesting framing ... mostly rhetorical.

I have to do "whatever" because I want to live longer and be healthy?

"Have" is more intellectual, while "want" is more physical, sensual and emotional.

I don't get these mincing of words for the most part, or know if they are helpful.

There was a great analogy I read in a neuroscience book, or maybe it was a pseudo-neuroscience book, but the idea was to like our "beings" to a man riding an elephant. The man has the brains, and is up high and can see farther and knows more, but the elephant wants what it wants and gets scared and can stampede out of control.

Maybe there is a trick to getting the two to work in parallel, but my little man has yet to learn elephant, and my elephant usually does not feel inclined to listen to any little man hitching a ride on this back.

For me that man-elephant communication is hard, and compromise takes a long time. I don't know and cannot predict how or when it will happen, but I know it does on occasion. I did quit smoking a long while ago.

One thing I know helps is to think creatively about small changes you can realistically make. Maybe you won't get to the gym every day, but you can walk around the block, or bike to work, or find some other small incremental change that will set you on the road to displacing the thing you want to do less of.

CrescentParkAnon: Thanks for your thoughtful comment. I liked the elephant lesson. Thought provoking. At the same time I don't think my distinction is rhetorical at all. The "want to" approach can be as intellectually well-thought out as the "need to" one. Since I believe you can flip from one to the other, why wouldn't one want to frame necessary tasks in a way that it was more likely to get done, and done well. Regarding your last point about choosing small tasks you can realistically get done: often folks set their goals based on what they perceive are their capabilities and current resources. I say: decide what you want without first lining up what you'll need to get there. You'll be surprised that many of the resources you need to get there are right there in front of you, but since there never was a need for them, you never knew they were there. Or now that there is a need, you'll go out and find what is required to achieve the goal. No need, no perceive. Happy New Year, and keep reading. I appreciate it.

Dear Palo Alto citizens

We have one new year resolution that we can not give up by the second week.
It is called FREEDOM.

We live in Palo Alto, a great community of people that are peace loving.

But, we need to express our support to FRANCE citizens on barbaric killings in Paris.

We need to support FREEDOM of EXPRESSION by newspapers. Cartoons are to provoke thought, wisdom and not GUNs and KILLINGs.

Let us all come together to say 'we are with you, FRANCE'.

Respectfully