With each New Year comes the resolve by many to change a habit, outlook or employment situation in hopes that a tweak in lifestyle will be just the ticket to achieving bigger, better things.

But as the cold days and weeks of January pass by and the jokes about failed resolutions amp up, realizing those Jan. 1 goals is something that less than 10 percent of Americans will do by year’s end, according to a University of Scranton Journal of Clinical Psychology report.

To help Sun Prairie residents become part of the 45 percent of Americans who set out to achieve specific goals when the clock struck midnight on 2014, the Sun Prairie Public Library will host a program focused more on helping individuals make their resolutions and less on keeping them.

On Saturday, Jan. 18, Tina Hallis, Baraboo resident and owner of Happy Hill Consulting, LLC, will use her training in Positive Psychology to present, “How to Get the Most Out of Your New Year’s Resolutions.” It will focus on the individual, choosing the right goals and achieving those goals through Hallis’s research-based tips and tricks.

“The research around goals shows that having goals increases your happiness level, increases positive mindset and interestingly, it’s more important to have them than it is to actually achieve them,” Hallis said. “ … When you have a goal, it gives you direction, it gives you focus, it helps you feel more comfortable and be able to be in the present moment because you’re not as worried about the future because you have a plan.”

Even if that plan doesn’t come to fruition, the benefit of creating it with good intentions is similar to achieving it. It’s a theory Hallis attributes to Positive Psychology.

According to the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center, Positive Psychology is “the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive. The field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work and play.”

“The thing I love about Positive Psychology is … it’s a science that we get to apply directly in our lives,” she said. “ … It’s this whole idea of, how can we live our best life possible?”

For Hallis, the typical resolutions focused on weight loss, financial security and finding a new job are not necessarily ones that are beneficial to make.

“I think we get very stuck into New Year’s resolutions that we think we should do,” Hallis said.

To create a resolution with a chance of lasting, Hallis shares her go-to equation to setting a goal that will have the most impact on an individual’s life. The two factors that play into that equation are passion and perceived difficulty level.

Hallis also recommends individuals ask themselves a series of questions about their resolutions, specifically what they hope comes of their resolution.

“If you dig deep enough and you ask yourself, ‘Why?’ you usually get down to some very important internal value,” she said.

Hallis cites her recent entry on the “Tips for Today” portion of Happy Hill Consulting’s Web site, in which she encourages people to consider a resolution that revolves around the impression others have of us in our various roles, be it parent, co-worker or friend.

She advises imagining an ideal life in which relationships, work and finances are at their best.

“Now imagine someone from your family (maybe your partner, one of your kids, a parent, etc.) describing this ideal you to someone who has never met you,” Hallis writes. “What are three words they would use to capture this perfect you? … Repeat this process for other areas of your life that are important to you - perhaps a group in your community, your friends, etc. Are there any of these descriptions that could use some work in 2014?”

Hallis encourages individuals to write down the description that could use work and post it in a highly visible area to continue working toward a better self throughout the year, even if it doesn’t necessarily last.

Despite any perceived failure that might occur with a New Year’s resolution, Hallis said it is important to consistently reflect on life and understand that goals can be made and changed anytime.

“There’s something about the whole drama of starting a new year that makes people reflect back and think about, ‘How do I want this year to be different?’” Hallis said. “And I think that’s a very good thing, to reflect back and think about change, but don’t feel like you have to wait until the first of the year to do that especially if there are things happening in your life that are motivating you to want to change.”

The program will begin at 11 a.m. at the library, 1350 Linnerud Dr.