They're just resolutions made to be broken. The point is that many people are unused to setting goals, based on their fear of meeting them. They are so worried about failing to achieve objectives that they avoid setting them at all. The problem compounds if you have told others you were on a diet before. They all know that you weren't able to hold to your commitments.
Fear of failure is the major contributor to poor goal achievement.
If I don't fail, I won't have to face a loss of self-confidence. We've all heard that it's better to set high goals and miss, than to fail to set them at all. But this simple philosophy doesn't work. You can't listen to a motivational speaker pump you up and suddenly expect to be an achiever. What do you have to say for yourself now.