Resolution? What is this word "resolution"?

Five days in and I'm still avoiding thinking of new year's resolutions. I suppose that has something to do with the fact that I made three last year and only made good on one of them.

So... the question is: do I just import last year's resolutions, or invent new ones? I still want to do both of the things on the list, but am afraid I will jinx them by putting them on again. On the other hand, I can't think of anything new that I want to commit to this year, so putting the old stuff on the new list would just be expedient, wouldn't it?

I've had mixed luck with resolutions - sometimes I've stuck with them, and sometimes they've pretty much fallen by the wayside. I've been most successful when I've made the kind that start "sometime this year I will..." smoking and divorcing my first husband come to mind... but the ones that are more vague "I would like to be more..." tend to be so amorphous that they are not only difficult to implement (am I actually being more... right now?) but it is also difficult to know whether or not I have achieved them (was I actually more... at any point this year?)

Part of the problem is that I'm not feeling particularly resolute right now. That would imply that I'm feeling pro-active, not the passive mood that I'm currently entertaining (which partially arises out of a feeling of depression looking at the pile of books I have to read sometime soon).

I've also wondered if new year's resolutions are supposed to be like birthday wishes... do they only come true/happen if you don't tell anyone? Or is it the reverse and they only happnen IF you tell someone? I've never really shared mine with anyone before, so I have no empirical evidence either way. If anyone knows whether there's a rule for this, let me know.

I suppose you could argue that publicizing them would allow your friends and family to call you on it, but that could also be really annoying.

So, right now, all I've got for resolutions is to recycle the leftovers from last year. What remains to be seen is whether I actually get around to them this year!