BY THE end of today many people in the UK who made New Year’s resolutions will have broken them.

The second Friday in January is known as Quitters’ Day as it is the most likely day for people to give up on their resolutions.

A 2020 study by recipe box delivery service HelloFresh, found that 40 per cent of New Year’s Resolutions have already failed by this point, despite our best intentions.

This year Quitters’ Day falls on Friday 13th - not a great omen for any of us.

I’d like to bet all my Christmas presents - except my snuggly hot water bottle cover - that after a couple of months most people have given up. Actual statistics vary as to how people fare after a year, but figures of around eight per cent are common.

It begs the question, why do we bother? When I think back at all the New Year’s pledges I’ve made - including many I have set out over the years in this column - and had high hopes of fulfilling, I can’t bring to mind one that has been successfully followed through.

Obviously, some of them were going to take some doing. Going to live in in New York - something I have craved since my teens and still subconsciously hanker after - wasn’t an easy fix, what with no job, green card, money or connections to get me there. No matter how many times it popped up on my list of resolutions it was clearly never going to happen.

‘Writing a novel’ has appeared with alarming regularity in my January 1 list. But, despite working part-time, I have never been able to find the hours to devote to it. My much-thought-about bestseller not only doesn’t have a first chapter, it hasn’t even got a first line. No title, no plot, no royalties rolling in. It’s patently clear it this is never going to come to fruition.

‘Lose weight’ is always up there with my top resolutions. I half-heartedly try, but with food being one of my few pleasures, the idea of microwaving cabbage soup three times a day, while my husband tucks into delicious curries or pasta dishes is utterly depressing.

Disturbingly, it’s not only the hard-to-achieve resolutions that I have had difficulty keeping over the years. Even simpler, easy-to-fulfil pledges that I have promised to stick to, have always gone by the wayside.

I recently found evidence of resolutions made in 1995, that have remained on my list annually ever since: keep the house tidy, always remember where I parked my car at the supermarket, go for a daily walk, don’t bicker with my husband, write down where I’ve put things…all very basic, yet, to date, none of these have been honoured.

I think the best way forward for me, and many others is to make a New Year’s resolution not to make any resolutions. We make far too many as it is, not just two or three but dozens. They introduce added stress to our already stressful lives.

Every year, it’s as though we are wiping the slate clean and starting again from scratch. We set ourselves targets - some requiring massive effort - and beat ourselves up when we don’t meet them.

Let’s face it, if everyone stuck to New Year’s Resolutions the nation would be full of fresh-faced, size eight, super-fit types living on tofu - how boring that would be.

New Year’s resolutions are simply adjustments to our lives that we can consider making anytime, not just in January, and for as long or short a period as we like.

So make no resolutions, break no resolutions, be guilt-free and enjoy 2023.