I don’t believe in making New Year’s resolutions. I don’t think they work and I think that people, who make them, set themselves up for failure.

I do believe the idea is a good one, however. They are promises we say out loud or just to ourselves during the New Year’s Eve party that are meant to help us be better, stronger, richer and thinner people during the upcoming year. 

It’s a great concept to help us start the New Year in a positive and hopeful way, but I just feel like the problem with resolutions is that as much as it’s a tradition to make them, it’s also a tradition to break them.

Take for instance, the common and most popular resolution: to get in shape.  

Every January, my gym is bursting with new people determined to make this year the year they lose the weight. Treadmills are full with lines of waiting runners in their new kicks and shiny new iPods. Classes are packed to the point that if your late, you might find a mismatched set of weights laying around, but don’t even think about getting a mat. Hopeful exercisers are elbow-to-elbow battling for open spaces, bumping into each other and the regulars are upset because someone took their “spot.”

And here’s a little secret — most of us can’t wait for February when the resolutions start to fade away, the motivation is lost and the gym starts to empty out again.

Don’t get me wrong though. It’s not like I want anyone to fail in their New Year’s resolution. I just think they go about in the wrong way.

Setting a start date that everyone is aware of and rushing off to a crowded gym where they get frustrated over wait times and lack of equipment is not a good way to create a healthy habit. Generally speaking, if it’s hard, frustrating and time-consuming, people will give up.

But, for all of you determined to stick it out this year, the gym environment in January is obviously not typical of the rest of the year.

So, my advice, if fitness is your resolution of choice, is to work out at home during that first month and then slowly ease your way in to a gym environment. That way you avoid all the madness, stay motivated and don't come in at a time where some people may be placing bets on how many "resolutioners" will actually make it to February. (Yes, we do that).

This is just one of the reason why I choose to never make resolutions regarding the big three — money, family and fitness — because who wants to feel like they failed at any of those with a large crowd watching?

If any change needs to occur in any of these areas, I call them life-changing decisions and they can happen any time of the year with each day a new opportunity to change or grow or become better.

And my other words of advice, for anyone making resolutions this weekend is to keep it simple. For example, one of my friends has decided that this year she will use her car horn more since apparently she feels she doesn’t use it enough.

It's simple, easy and fulfilling a promise she made to herself.

And if she fails in her resolution, no big deal. She didn’t let anyone down, she didn’t fail at anything really important and she didn’t fill the streets with annoying noise. And if next December, my friend feels that she didn't fulfill her quota for honking at drivers not paying attention to the changing lights, she can always try again in 2013.