This is a subject probably better suited for Jill Whitney, our Personal Connections columnist, but you don’t have to be professional to talk about and make resolutions.

We can argue until the cows come home over whether New Year’s resolutions are good or bad and how one should go about it. Do they work? Your mileage may vary; I succeeded with only four of my 11 this year. I ended up meeting another goal I had set for 2019, but that’s still only a 58 percent success rate.

Citing a 2015 U.S. News and World Report story, a piece in Psychology Today’s “A Modern Mentality” blog this month explored why 80 percent of resolutions fail by February. Four main factors holding back those successes include making resolutions that are too vague, feeling overwhelmed by the work required to make the change, feeling discouraged by the progress (or lack thereof), and just not being ready for change.

(To read more, visit the original blog post.)

I’m generally pretty focused, and I’ve found that writing everything down helps me get things done; before I went to New Zealand in November, I drafted up a three-week calendar of what I had to do and when to get everything done before I left. I set goals for myself every year, and I try to use the SMART template of things that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely.

So what went wrong? I’ll use my “go to the gym twice a week” example. It was definitely specific, measurable and attainable. R for relevant is up for debate; you could argue that going to the gym is both less and more important now that I’m no longer skating as intensely as I used to. I could have made timeliness less of an issue had I been more motivated, but instead I found lame excuses not to go.

It appears you need all those letters for it to work.

Other flops include making dinner for my parents once a week, getting over my broke college kid mentality of eating any free snacks made available and finishing my yarn blanket (I just kept breaking my circular needles).

I’m going to give myself half a point for my goal of reffing one game or scrimmage a month. I de jure failed because I missed November and December, but I did ref more than 12 times, so I count that as a de facto success. My two missed months were also because of two other goals, that aforementioned New Zealand trip and because I took off the rest of the year to give myself a break from roller derby.

As for the other successes, I paid off one of my federal student loans, and I ended up saving enough to pay off my car, something I had originally slated for next year. I also made it through a game without forgetting a hand signal or making one up, though my clarity in calling penalties could still use work. Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, timely. All boxes are checked.

What’s in store for next year? I have ongoing resolutions not to buy, quote, “stupid stuff” and to use my savings only to pay off loans. I’m also planning on paying off another fed loan and redoing the resolutions I bombed this year, though I’m not sure how I’ll get myself over the impulse to eat all the snacks.

And who knows, maybe I’ll be asked to staff a game because they actually want me, not because they need a body.

Just remember, be SMART about your goals. (Don’t I sound like a professional now?)

A parting note: if you’re stuck for ideas, a favorite old webcomic of mine has you covered. “Surviving the World” ended last June, but they have a poster of 365 resolutions you can check off as you go through the new year. Some of them are more serious, like monitoring your carbon footprint or taking care of yourself. Some of them are not serious at all; my personal favorite is remaining vigilant of squirrels. Whoever does them all will get a (free) cookie.

Amanda Hutchinson is the assistant community editor for the Times.