Unsurprisingly, plenty of New Year's resolutions fail, and fail quickly. A study by John C. Norcross of the University of Scranton found that only 77 percent of resolution-makers were able to keep their promises "continuously for one week" - which means that 23 percent failed in the very first week.

But when we consider the high-flying nature of most New Year's resolutions, maybe those success rates aren't so bad. And there is, apparently, a bit of magic to making a New Year's resolution, as opposed to some other plan for change - only four percent of "non-resolvers" reported being able to make a change for six months.

Successful resolution-makers "think small" - both about the number of resolutions and the time necessary to accomplish them. Joseph Weintraub, founder and faculty director of the Babson Coaching for Leadership and Teamwork Program, recommends setting no more than three goals with a deadline of a year or less.

Goals should be attainable, but challenging enough to make them worth doing. For a Master Procrastinator, for example, a goal of "don't procrastinate" isn't realistic. But maybe he's pretty sure he can commit to a goal of having all briefs drafted one week before their due date, so he can review them with clients and colleagues and give his staff a reasonable amount of time to get them prepared and filed. Learn more resolution best practices from Karen Erger's column (clever and insightful per usual) in the December Illinois Bar Journal.