If you think you’re going to stick to your New Year’s resolution, the outlook isn’t great.

This means you should be like me and just embrace your lack of savings and debauched living, as you order your 4200th pint of craft beer for the evening.

Sure, the occasional person might be able to succeed with their plan, but most people will continue with their bad habits.

Statistics from 2016 showed only eight per cent of people achieved their resolution from the year before, while an earlier study found only 12 per cent had any success.

The problem is that most people have unrealistic expectations about the speed, ease and consequences of the resolutions they make.

In a paper published in American Psychologist, Janet Polivy and Peter Herman said people

attempting self-change rarely succeed the first time, with most people needing five or six attempts.

“New Year’s resolvers typically report making the same pledge for five years or more before they manage a six-month success, and of those who fail this year, 60 per cent will make the same resolution again next year,” they wrote.

Failure rates are high for most attempts to give up unhealthy habits such as smoking and drinking.Source:AFP

The authors suggest “false hope syndrome” is to blame for people being unsuccessful in ridding themselves of behaviours such as overeating, smoking, gambling and alcohol or drug use.

“Deciding to change produces reinforcing feelings of being in control, and the self-change effort begins well, generally with success in the early stages,” they wrote.

“As time goes by and the endeavour continues, change becomes more difficult to sustain, and

ultimately, no further progress is made (and backsliding may begin). One or more relapse episodes result in abandonment of the effort, which now is deemed a failure.

“Although there may be some initial improvement in affect and self-esteem when the self-change effort is succeeding early on, when failure ultimately occurs, the individual feels worse than before the resolution.”

There are some tips to follow so you can be the be in the small group that succeed. Picture: InstagramSource:Instagram

While this is a bleak outlook on the idea of New Year’s resolutions, some psychologists believe it is possible to succeed if you break things down.

According to Britain’s National Health Service, these 10 steps can help you succeed:

1 . Make only one resolution. Your chances of success are greater when you channel energy into changing just one aspect of your behaviour.

2. Don’t wait until New Year’s Eve to choose your resolution. Take some time out a few days before and think about what you want to achieve.

3. Avoid previous resolutions. Deciding to revisit a past resolution sets you up for frustration and disappointment.

4. Don’t run with the crowd and go with the usual resolutions. Instead think about what you really want out of life.

5. Break your goal into a series of steps, focusing on creating sub-goals that are concrete, measurable and time-based.

6. Tell your friends and family about your goals. You’re more likely to get support and want to avoid failure.

7. To stay motivated, make a checklist of how achieving your resolution will help you.

8. Give yourself a small reward whenever you achieve a sub-goal, which will help to motivate you and give you a sense of progress.

9. Make your plans and progress concrete by keeping a handwritten journal, completing a computer spreadsheet or covering a notice board with graphs or pictures.

10. Expect to revert to your old habits from time to time. Treat any failure as a temporary setback rather than a reason to give up altogether.

Will you be attempting a New Year’s resolution? Continue the conversation with Matthew Dunn on Twitter or Facebook.