SO YOU'VE made your new year's resolutions - but how long will you keep them?

Surveys show we have an appalling track record at sticking to our pledges for the new year.

Seven in ten of us make some sort of new year's resolutions, but three-quarters of us break them before the end of January.

The good news is that it pays to make resolutions - those who do are ten times more successful in changing their lives than those who don't. So if you really want to achieve something in your life you ought to make resolutions.

To help you this year, we have asked a group of experts for their advice. We have also asked some famous faces around York to spill the beans on their new year's resolutions, Clive Gott and Lisa Clifford both work as life coaches, helping people set and achieve goals. Their golden rule at this time of year is to warn people against swapping the season of gluttony for the season of abstinence. Instead, people should set goals that are more in tune with their aims and remember that promises made in haste are easily broken.

Lisa advised: "Set your own goals and don't adopt other peoples' or inherited goals. It is important that your desire to achieve the goal is 100 per cent."

Clive said: "Many of us fall into predictable habits. If we did a straw poll of The Press readers, I bet most would wish to radically change their life by, say, losing weight, or changing careers. Then after going to that new year's party where a few too many drinks are consumed, their aspirations come crashing to the ground as they wake up on New Year's Day drowning in aspirin and unattainable goals."

Another hallmark of the New Year's resolution is denial. Clive said: "Many of us start with the phrase I'm going to stop' that inevitably builds up a feeling of resentment when we embark on our fresh start."

A far healthier approach, Clive believes, is to adopt a different mindset. He said: "I don't think it should just happen at New Year. I run my goal-setting weekend at the beginning of December to avoid people setting resolutions for the wrong reasons."

He added this was particularly applicable to those wishing to lose weight. Clive explained: "If the motivating factor is feeling fat after a period of indulgence, the improvements won't necessarily be lasting."

Many people will start 2007 with the resolve to quit smoking. But, to be successful, Lisa urges people to pick a good reason to stub out.

She said: "Without proper attention to the reasons behind this decision many will flounder from lack of will power. But if the idea is to have a better quality of life, to be able to enjoy spending time with your children and discourage them from taking up smoking, then there is a good foundation for change."

York GP David Fair said new year was the perfect time to give up smoking because you would be in good company as many other smokers would be doing likewise.

He said: "Formulating new year's resolutions is also helpful in the case of smoking because it allows someone to be mentally prepared for the deprivation, as well as practically by throwing away ashtrays and spare cigarettes."

For people looking for extra support, Dr Fair suggested contacting the NHS Quit Smoking Hotline (0800 169 0169) or the duty nurse at your local GP surgery for more advice.

Amy LeBlanc, health and fitness manager at Next Generation fitness club in York, states for those who want to get into shape there are no quick fixes such as radical diets.

She said: "In order to lose weight, changes have to take place across the board. It is a combination of factors, not only changes in diet and drinking habits but a more long-term change in attitude."

Gyms are a good indicator of the fickle nature of new year's resolutions - gym membership peaks in January, but hits a slump by March as good intentions slide back into bad habits.

We might be lousy at keeping our resolutions, but most of us still make them.

At York Theatre Royal, panto legend Berwick Kaler keeps his short and sweet. "My resolution is to reach the end of the run of Cinderella on February 3 - and I hope that everyone has a peaceful and happy new year."

But is there any point in making resolutions if our lives are in the hands of fate? Or the stars? Who better to ask than York-based astrologer Jonathan Cainer.

"Different signs get their opportunities at different times," he said.

"Rarely do these events on the cosmic calendar coincide with events on the civil calendar like new year. This year, only the most determined will wake up January 1 and will find it easy to pursue the promise they have made themselves but we will all get our chance to change things in the first two months of 2007."

For romantic novelist Donna Hay, the best time to make a new start is in the spring. She said: "January is a bad time to turn over a new leaf when you are still reeling from Christmas. It would be impossible to make a clean break in finances when you still have large credit card bills to pay off from the many Christmas presents bought.

"Likewise declaring yourself a chocolate-free zone would be a lot easier if there weren't cupboards full of Christmas goodies."

Donna admits her cynicism about new year's resolutions stems from her own track record. She said: "Forty minutes past midnight and my resolve to be nicer to everyone was already waning"