As we tread forward in 2017, many people tend to waver in their commitment to New Year's resolutions.

Surveys published online suggest one week after New Year's Day, only about 75 per cent of those who set out for change are still committed to it, and that number dwindles continually, until less than half of those who took resolutions maintain them by six months later. Why do so many fail?

Southern Health Sante Sud psychiatric nurse Dick Forbes says there's a number of reasons why so many resolutions come up short, but the most prevalent is simple: unrealistic goal-setting.

"A lot of resolutions fall into the category of being (fairly superficial), such as losing weight or quitting smoking," Forbes says. "'I'm going to do these fairly large scale events.' And the idea is you're going to do them in short order. The problems people run into, in addition to the magnitude of the goal, is that the goals may not actually reflect their ultimate desire or values."

"...for example, changes like getting into better shape, or quitting smoking, are not an actual reflection of those things. They are accomplished by changes in smaller behaviours."

Forbes says many people form resolutions out of an inherent desire to do better, or be better. He says, often, people may be engaged in behaviours they're not fully comfortable with, and may have been contemplating change for some time. He says the artificial deadline of a new year, and the accompanying marketing of New Year's resolutions, creates pressure to enact those changes.

"Over-optimistic thinking as opposed to step-by-step, goal-by-goal planning... that really gets in the way for people," says Forbes.

To set a resolution or make a change more likely to stick, Forbes suggests taking the time to plan properly and understand how minor behavioural changes work towards a larger goal. For example, instead of planning to lose 20-pounds, decide what behaviours have to change to lose 20-pounds. That may be eating less of a certain food, or exercising a certain amount of times a week.

"Some of the goals individuals put out for themselves, or sometimes accept from other people, tend to not be related to (an) actual change with how we interact with the world," Forbes adds. "Then we're kind of set up for failure in that situation ... and if that happens, people might feel like 'I can't,' and actually increase the behaviours they were trying to change, because they feel like they've failed."