A RECENT study revealed that more than half of Australians don't bother to set new year's resolutions with the top two reasons being they didn't believe in them and were scared of failing.

Author of Intentionomics and wellness expert David Penglase said making the resolutions was not enough.

"It's great to set goals, but to achieve these goals we need to have the right intention to begin with, otherwise you're setting yourself up for failure."

For the 45% of respondents who said they had set new year's resolutions and didn't achieve them, the main reasons for failure were: other priorities got in the way; they lost motivation and focus; or it wasn't that important to them in the first place.

Mr Penglase said being realistic about resolutions was vital to achieving them.

Life coach Frances Holmes knows all too well how people's good intentions can fail to take off in the first few weeks of a new year.

Ms Holmes said the first few days of the new year was her busiest time of the year, with people e-mailing and calling her about the changes they were going to make in their lives.

"In my experience 10% of people commit to their resolutions," Ms Holmes said.

"The rest get hyped up and excited, but don't do anything about it.

"The first thing I always say before making a new resolution is to look back and think about what has been going on in the past 12 months."

She said one of the secrets to creating significant life changes was to start with a "tangible goal".