Someone was recently heard making a very sensible New Year resolution: “I will tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time.” A wise resolution, indeed!

"It is important for people to pick an activity that they enjoy," an expert says. "There's no point running if you don't enjoy it. You're better off choosing something you look forward to doing." So putting up with fools is realistic in the sense that you will come across fools in the year 2007 and you might be one of them. Some people make health resolutions; others try to stick to the financial ones. In the words of a wise man, “Many people look forward to the New Year for a new start on old habits.” Recycling of resolutions is an opportunity that New Year gives us each year.

The real resolutions are initially not lame enough to wait for the first month of the year. January 1 is the beginning of a new year. The Romans named the first month of the year after Janus, the god of beginnings and the guardian of doors and entrances. He was always depicted with two faces, one on the front of his head and one on the back. Thus, he could look backward and forward at the same time. At midnight on December 31, the Romans imagined Janus looking back at the old year and forward to the new one. The song, "Auld Lang Syne," is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English speaking country in the world. The song was written by Robert Burns in 1741. It was first published in 1796 after Burns' death. "Auld Lang Syne" literally means "old long ago" or simply, "the good old days." The good old days of resolution-free existence are recalled. Once the first week of January passes, gone are the days of keeping the resolutions alive.

Resolution is a self-gifted thing, so it can always be taken away. Historically, the Romans began a tradition of exchanging gifts on New Year's Eve. January 1 became the beginning of the New Year in 46BC when Julius Caesar developed a calendar that would more accurately reflect the seasons than previous calendars. Some cultures have lunar calendars. A year in a lunar calendar is less than 365 days because its months are based on the phases of the moon. The Chinese use a lunar calendar. Their new year begins at the time of the first full moon (over the Far East) after the sun enters Aquarius -- sometime between January 19 and February 21. However, the tradition to celebrate New Year exists in most of the cultures these days. In Arabic, happy New Year is wished like Kul 'aam u antum salimoun, in Chinese, they greet Chu Shen Tan, in French: Bonne Annee, Italians say Buon Capodanno, Russians say S Novim Godom, and Spanish people shout Prospero Ano Nuevo for wishing New Year.

Someone rightly said: “New Year's Day is every man's birthday.” People, on that so-called anniversary, try to reinvent themselves; it’s an event of renewal of resolutions, intentions and promises. These resolutions may be about anything, but the ones about health and wealth figure in most people’s lives. But many people forget that their die-hard habits come in the way of fragile resolutions. Oscar Wilde always looked at things from a funny perspective. His view on New Year resolutions was not intellectually bland either: “Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.”

Most experts agree that it takes about 21 days to create a habit and six months for it to actually become a part of your daily life. A new study shows that African-Americans are most likely to stick with their New Year's resolutions to get healthier. Actions should speak louder than words. These intentions translated into action: just over half (54 per cent) of African-Americans have reportedly changed their eating habits within the past year. By comparison, 41 per cent of Hispanics and 39 per cent of other groups made modifications during the same period in the US. According to research, a quarter of African-American women older than 55 have diabetes and black women are 69 per cent more likely than their white counterparts to die of heart disease. Among 18 to 24-year-olds, three-quarters of African-Americans exercised in the past month, whereas only 64 per cent of the general market and 60 per cent of Hispanics said they had.

More than one-third of Americans are planning to make a financial change as their New Year's resolution for 2007, according to a new survey conducted by Money Magazine and market research firm, the ICR. The survey showed that 37 per cent of Americans plan to make a New Year's resolution involving finances. In the past, just 23 per cent of respondents had made such resolutions. The survey also showed that of those who have made financial resolutions in the past, only 24 per cent were successful.

It is believed that about 20 per cent of us keep our New Year's resolutions. Unfortunately, some of the biggest failures are those with fitness resolutions.