In the dark corner of everyone’s mind on every New Year’s Eve lurks the unspoken question, “What am I going to do to make this year better than last?” As the giant ball descends on the Times Square flagpole and the countdown begins, each of us secretly mutters a hurried resolution: “This is the year I’m going to lose weight.” “Tomorrow I’ll stop smoking.” “No more putting things off.”

Resolutions on New Year’s Eve are as natural an association to us as cold and snow, as champagne and a toast. They rise momentarily to our consciousness, and then, like the Times Square ball itself, they drop and become slowly and forever forgotten. If the resolutions do survive the festive night, they die a silent and unremembered death the next morning. We are all great at making resolutions, but when it comes to carrying them through, a “How to” book, a course, or a lesson is often needed.

In his many volumes on spirituality, Saint Alphonsus Liguori continually emphasizes the importance of making resolutions. After every period of prayer or meditation, he urges us to make a resolution. At the conclusion of every retreat, make a resolution. When falling off to sleep each night, make a resolution. Resolve! Resolve! Resolve! Keep doing it. His constant advice to us is that even though we forget or fall short of following through, we need to keep making resolutions.

A cultural ritual every New Year’s Eve is to stop whatever we are doing and join friends and family in counting down the final seconds of the year’s end, beginning with the number “10.” Perhaps the following countdown of ten ways to make resolutions might help those of us who are experts at making resolutions but who fail at bringing them to life.