New Year's resolutions get a bad rap in this cynical age. I see more and more people making a sport out of how quickly they can insult, poke fun of, or discourage someone who was brave enough to put out a resolution, which is really a way of admitting that you have a fault, but are willing to even examine it, and attempt to fix it.

Well I for one enjoy taking stock of the previous year, examining my role in it, how I did with last year's resolutions, and making new ones. I always have a lot of resolutions, even more than I publicly say, because I'm far from perfect, and want to work on many aspects of my life as well as myself. I could just as easily choose another day in the year to make these resolutions, like my birthday, Samhain, or any other, but I choose to follow the traditional one that I've grown up with. The funny thing is, when people make the same kinds of resolutions at other times in the year, people don't seem to have that knee-jerk negative reaction. Weird!

One of the toughest parts about these resolutions is identifying the opportunity for them. You have to willing look at yourself and your life and ask, "What's wrong with this picture?" During the year, there are plenty of chances to stop working on these resolutions, stuff happens, and that's the next tough part, follow through.

I don't have any tricks for that first one, I just get honest with myself, and take a good look. I also remind myself of the resolutions from the previous year that I've done or incorporated. If I didn't remember how far I'd come, I wouldn't have much reason for doing it.

There are a few tricks I've learned dealing with that pesky follow through issue. The top one is having accountability to someone else. Telling a spouse or best friend one of your resolutions, and explaining why you've made can go along way toward making it happen. I don't think that posting them on Facebook adds any particular accountability because social networks are pretty non-committal as it is. People are conditioned to click the "like" button regardless of whether they actually "like" something or just want to acknowledge they saw it or agree with it. The term "friend" has also been damaged beyond belief thanks to Facebook.

One other thing I can tell you is that if you're already making excuses for why you're not willing to do some of the 'leg work' at the start of some project or resolution, it's a lot less likely that you're going to see it through.