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• Did you know that the tradition of using the New Year to make positive changes may be traced back Babylon and to Rome?
• Here are some recent statistics: o Normally, about 45% of us make annual resolutions o Those who make resolutions are 10 times more likely to achieve them than those who don’t set some kind of goal o This year up to 75% of us are making resolutions.
• According to Dr. John Norcross of the University of Scranton and SUNY Upstate Medical University, Americans find the following steps of behavior change most difficult: Getting started; Actually Changing Behavior; Slipping Back into Old routine.
• Benjamin Franklin was candid about his failures with his New Year’s resolutions in his autobiography. And still he was a big proponent. He said that even though he most often did not achieve them, reaching towards those resolutions made him a better person.
• I used to volunteer with an organization that did the following AMAZING study. We divided a room full of people into small groups. Each group had the goal of making a puzzle—you know the kind where you fit cardboard pieces together to make a pretty picture? One group got the box and the correct puzzle pieces to make the picture on the box. One group got a box, but the pieces in that box did not match the picture on the box. The last group just got the pieces, no box with picture to shoot for. Although the group with matching pieces and box generally finished completing their puzzle first, almost every time, the group with a nonmatching box to pieces finished second. They almost always beat the team with no picture to pursue at all.
  o Moral: Consider setting some kind of a goal for yourself. Even if you don’t achieve that exact one you will be moving in a better direction than not having a picture out ahead of you at all.
Top Ten U.S. Resolutions According to a Harris Interactive Poll conducted with 3,036 U.S. adults in December 2012 :

• Weight Loss 21%
  Improve Finances 14%
  Exercise 14%
  Get a New Job 10%
  Healthier Eating 7%
  Manage Stress Better 5%
  Stop/Reduce Smoking 5%
  Improve A Relationship 5%
  Improve Procrastination 3%
  Set Aside time for Myself 3%