LOOK: if you haven’t gone to the gym in the past six months, there is absolutely no evidence that you will drag yourself there over the next six months, regardless of whatever empty promises you’ve made to yourself or your spouse or your current online crush.

Also, although I know you mean well, you will probably not lose 30 pounds in three months just by eliminating white bread from your diet and adding a bit of flax to your bran cereal.

New Year’s resolutions, almost by definition, are made to be broken. Real change has to come from a sense of commitment, not from the turning of a page on your calendar. Commitment, as we all know, is hard to come by. But I’m thinking that maybe there are resolutions that could be easily kept, and that would also have more effect than a three-week stretch of daily cardio workouts that quickly tapers off to none.

For example: You resolve to refrain from the use of your middle finger as a gesture of frustration toward other drivers, no matter how foolish a manoeuvre they have just pulled in front of you. This, I will freely admit, could present a bit of a challenge, especially in HRM, but what’s the value of a resolution if it just comes easily, huh? Not getting flipped off could easily brighten the day of hundreds of drivers, and that’s just if I, alone, stick with this resolution. If we collectively swear off our use of the "bird," perhaps we could create some kind of positive karmic energy that creates a force-field of happiness around our city, and which could, like, keep it from raining or something. Win.

Here’s another. What if we were to all start listening to the little voice in our heads that says: "Don’t post that vitriolic Facebook status, my friend. Your boss is online, and she’s going to know you’re talking about her, indirectly." That would be a relatively easy resolution to keep, don’t you think? All it takes is a nanosecond-long pause before you hit "Post," and think of the impact on your quality of life. Easily four or five fewer embarrassing moments a year, I figure, and an improved probability of a raise over the course of the New Year. Again with the win.

How about this? You resolve to, when the time comes, vote in the next election, no matter what it’s for. This is an awesome resolution because you don’t even have to DO anything right now. And when the time comes to live up to it, all you have to do is walk into a polling station and mark an "X" on a piece of paper with a pencil. What a no-brainer. Even an alien from another planet could fulfil this resolution, it’s so simple. And, again, impact-wise: huge. Level of commitment and personal change required: low. Double win.