It’s that time again — time to make an honest assessment of things, including yourself, and somehow come up with a resolution that will help make it all better.

I freely admit I belong to the 40 to 45 percent of Americans who make a resolution every year. But with age comes wisdom — in theory — so I’ve decided the best kind of resolution is one I actually have a chance at keeping! In some cases, that means making the resolution broader in scope.

For instance, instead of resolving to lose weight, you could resolve to “be healthier” in the new year. That way, if you make lifestyle changes that are healthier, an end result of that could be losing weight.

On the flip side, however, some resolutions are too broad. If you’re like me and you resolve to get organized, you could be looking at an uphill battle. Pick one or two things to organize instead of trying to organize everything — and don’t pick your spouse! You could be facing an uphill battle with that one.

My resolution is to get all my craft stuff organized this year so I actually have a chance to work on some projects instead of spending all my time searching for things. Does it matter that I’ve told my husband he must create space for me in the garage in order to do this? Perhaps. But this way if I fail, I can say it’s not entirely my fault! Flawed or not, there is logic in this strategy.

Statistics show 46 percent of resolution-makers still keep them after six months. That may not sound very good, but research also shows that people who make resolutions, whether or not they keep them, are more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t. (Go to proactivechange.com/resolutions/statistics.htm to check this.)

So, whether I keep them or not, I will continue to make New Year’s resolutions. If I’m lucky, I can arrange the carcasses of all my broken resolutions into a staircase I can climb one day in my quest to actually reach a goal.

Happy New Year!

-Kathy Reed, editor