There are many lofty things one can decide to do or not to do during the course of the new year. For self-preservational purposes, you may not want to share your resolutions with just anyone, but if you really plan on keeping them it might be helpful to tell the right someone. It is all too easy to forget about your resolutions shortly after January 2nd unless you let someone else in on your plans. If you tell someone else, chances are he will remember and ask you how you are doing from time to time. This serves as a great motivator.
Nobody wants to seem weak-willed or to have a lack of self control.
If another person is expecting something of us we don't want to disappoint them. The start of a new year can be a great time to actually start doing or to stop doing something that you have been thinking about for a long time. If you don't start somewhere you will never finish. Anyway, if there is something you have kept telling yourself you want to do if you ever get a round to it, this is the perfect time of the year for those things. I have made some resolutions of my own for 1996.