There’s a lot of power and even nobility in the word “resolution.” But when it shows up accompanied by the trickster phrase “new year’s,” it's like a solemn king preceded by a capering jester. With every step we and our resolutions take into the year, it becomes harder to ignore the widening credibility gap.

I can already chalk up one wavering resolve, which took shape after reading an article shortly before we at Quality Digest took our end-of-year break. I tell you, I was fired up about it. It would be my first new year’s resolution for 2017, to write a blistering opinion piece on the matter. But at some point during the stretch between then and now, I misplaced that determination. Too much good cheer, I suppose. What follows is a more tempered, and probably more balanced, rendition.

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