However much one tries to avoid being swept away by the tide of popular trends, most people participate in a beginning-of-the-year tradition: New Year's resolutions. Go to the gym more, learn a foreign language, quit smoking, expand one's circle of friends or be nicer to relatives are among the most common. Rarely do people propose something simple like going on a specific trip or attending a certain play; indeed, people usually resolve to change some habit, either by building one to improve as a person or leaving a destructive one behind.

The force of habit is overwhelming and does not involve simple actions alone, but rather make us into the kind of people we are. Likewise, acquiring and changing habits is a hard, tedious process that usually finds us abandoning change before the end of the January. Can something be done to change this failure? Here are four tips to increase chances of success.

1. Although you may not notice effects on your health immediately, your brain has already begun to change. Our experiments show that when a sedentary person starts doing regular exercise, even if it is gradual, the brain begins to change before effects are felt in the rest of the body. Once a resolution is carried out, the brain is already adjusting to it. Most good habits are consolidated little by little and their immediate effects are not consciously obvious, but they nevertheless exist.

2. Start with easy goals and allow yourself a treat when you reach them. We tend to set ambitious goals that we want to reach right away. As shown through many studies, an immediate reward, however small, is often more valuable than a bigger prize in a few months. Small and immediate rewards help in the fight for good habits.

3. If you want to eliminate a bad habit, try to replace it with a better one. But how can a good habit be distinguished from a bad one? Neuroscience has no clear distinction because, as the expert Ann Graybiel notes, this science has had to separate itself from the popular view of habit, and leave behind its interest in some of its features, to be able to do experiments on animals. To understand human habit better, we can turn to Aristotle, according to whom a habit is good if it involves learning and bad if it becomes a rigid routine. Habit is an acquired disposition that brings us toward or away from that which is proper to human beings, i.e., health, happiness, social good, etc. By nature, we are inclined towards these ends and habits are a second nature that, through our actions, helps or hinders us in achieving those ends. If going to the gym becomes an obsession that leads one to consume substances that harms one's health, it has then become a bad habit. Therefore, a good habit has two characteristics that distinguish it from a bad one, i.e., it permits one to think and learn while it is taking place and it brings one closer to goals that are proper to human beings.

4. Do not forget the ultimate goal, which includes improving health, being able to understand a TV show in its original version, improving the way others see you. It is important to note that the second tip does not contradict this one; rather both are complementary. We need to have short-term goals, while keeping sight of the ultimate goal, which is reached in the course of the habit itself.

A sports metaphor is always useful for understanding the different characteristics of habits. Consider, for example, a tennis player's serve: if it is based on repetition and becomes a routine beyond the player's cognitive control, i.e., if it prevents the player from thinking, it will soon become a failure. No matter how good a player's serve is, her opponent will adapt to it and return better. A serve is effective not just because it is fast, strong or automatic, but rather because it helps a player to achieve her goal, which is to win the point. Automating a serve does not allow a player to think of the best option at that point in the match. A routine serve takes a player away from the ultimate end, which is to win the game, while a serve that incorporates learning brings a player closer to the ultimate end. 

And not to worry if a double fault is called. It is more important to learn from mistakes and put all one's cognitive resources into making the next serve an ace. Just remember, a year is a lot of time.