Have you made any New Year's resolutions? Maybe a more fitting question would be if you've broken any yet.

According to some figures I found online (which means they have to be true, right?), approximately 45 percent of adult Americans say they make New Year's resolutions — usually some pledge of self-denial. However, by the end of the first week in January, 25 percent of those people have already reverted to their pre-resolve status. After a month, 36 percent of the new resolutions have been scrapped, and by June, almost half of them are forgotten.

By the way, did you know that 27 percent of all quoted statistics are made up on the spot?

Most New Year's resolutions seem to fall into two categories: either things that will make someone a better person — annual classics include weight loss, exercising, increasing your fiber intake, etc. — or resolutions which help to improve the world around you, such as doing volunteer work or giving more money to charity.

Some resolutions deliver benefits for yourself and others at the same time, like quitting smoking or visiting a lonely old friend. Or resolving to stop drinking and driving. Maybe start returning library books on time. There are lots of options.

For myself, I toy with the same resolutions every year, such as trying to be more optimistic about the future. Wouldn't it be ironic if that actually worked in 2012, and then the Mayans' end-of-the world prediction turns out to be true?

So who began this custom? It's been suggested that New Year's resolutions are based on ancient pagan rituals, when people made pledges to various gods in the hope of being granted some celestial favor in return. But that raises several questions: for one thing, why would the harvest gods care if a farmer lost weight? Also, how did those people even know when it was the start of a new year? They didn't have calendars or bowl games or tax bills to remind them.

I was thinking this column might provide a convenient platform to suggest some New Year's resolutions for Journal readers this week, but I'm not qualified to offer personal behavior guidance. Then it occurred to me to consult with a few trusted experts to see what useful, practical life-coaching tips they could provide. So I turned to the great minds of some of America's favorite poets and philosophers: rock stars.

If you think about it, popular music has been giving us self-help advice for generations. If you want to be a happier, more fulfilled person — and/or make the world more pleasant for others — you can simply heed the instructions offered in some song titles:

* Keep Your Sunny Side Up

* Count Your Blessings

* Don't Worry, Be Happy

* Roll With The Changes

* Don't Stop Believin'

* Climb Every Mountain

* Accentuate The Positive

* Keep On Truckin'

* Take It Easy

* Don't Be Cruel

* Let It Be

If your New Year's goals sometimes include resolutions about working to improve your interpersonal relationships, a number of lyricists have provided inspirational fodder there as well:

* Take A Chance On Love

* Open Your Heart

* Try A Little Tenderness

* Treat Her Like A Lady

* Keep Your Hands To Yourself

* Don't Pull Your Love

* Tell It Like It Is

* Stand By Your Man

* Kiss an Angel Good Morning

* Don't Take Your Love To Town

This is one heck of a musical trivia challenge. I was wondering how many readers could recognize the names of all the songs and remember who sang them; the list covers several decades and genres. While compiling these titles, my mind felt like somebody was playing with a radio dial, mentally sliding from one snippet of a melody into whatever came up next, song after song.

If you need a New Year's resolution about getting out more often and not taking things so seriously, try some of these options:

* Let the Good Times Roll

* Get Down Tonight

* Twist and Shout

* Everybody Have Fun Tonight

* Turn The Beat Around

* Go Where You Wanna Go

* Dance The Night Away

* Don't Sleep In the Subway

There's no shortage of experts recommending ways for us to clean up our acts and live more exciting lives, but in case you needed ideas for a resolution, I hope this exercise helped. Personally, I was going to resolve to procrastinate less . . . but I'll do that next year.

Happy 2012, everybody!