Commonly Broken New Year's Resolutions

About 40 percent of us will resolve to change our lives in some way in the new year, and the majority of us will fail. Here's why—and how you might be able to beat the odds.

By Corrie Pikul

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Improve a Relationship

Why it's tricky: You can't force the other person in the relationship to make the same resolution.

Make it stick: Find specific ways by which you can strengthen your connection, says Norcross. Instead of resolving to, say, talk to your young son more, do what one of his successful study participants did: Resolve to spend 10 minutes a day with your son before bed.

Next: What if you do everything right and still break your resolution?

Published on December 28, 2012

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My Life Is A Joke: Meet Lisa

Lisa Laureta engages audiences by mixing her character work with storytelling and classic stand up techniques. Born and raised in Colorado, Lisa ventured to Chicago to acquire proper comedy training at iO, The Second City, and The Annoyance. She has performed at iO on two Harold teams, an incubator team at The Playground, and performed sketch and improv shows at Second City's Donny's Skybox, The Annoyance, Studio Be, The Pub Theater, Stage Left, Gorilla Tango, The Playground, and The Cornservatory. She's a featured voice on the web series <i>HR</i> and was a cast member and writer for the live sitcom at iO titled <i>That's the Gig!</i> She's also had the pleasure of performing at the Del Close Marathon in New York City and recently took her one-woman show to Colorado. Since turning her focus to stand up and solo performance, Lisa has performed at many clubs and venues around the country and within Chicago including The Laugh Factory, Zanies, Chicago Underground Comedy and The Lincoln Lodge. She recently became a cast member and head of the charity/outreach committee for the stand up show 100 Proof Comedy. Lisa wrote a cartoon that is currently being animated and will be self-released by the spring and is consistently creating new humorous videos and working on a re-launch of her one-woman show. She is a marathon runner, dog lover, singer, vegan, and advocate for many charities. Her ultimate goal is to make a sole living from performing and writing comedy, by any means necessary!