Keeping your resolve. John C. Norcross, a University of Scranton professor of psychology, offers the Los Angeles Times some research-backed good advice for keeping your New Year’s resolutions:

• Believe in yourself. Self-efficacy is the psychological concept that [Stanford University psychology professor Albert] Bandura introduced in 1977 to describe how much someone believes he or she can succeed at making a habit change. Studies clearly show that the greater your self-efficacy, the better your chances of success.

“Unless people believe they can succeed, they have little incentive to act or persevere when faced with difficulties,” Bandura says. His research shows that self-efficacy improves when people set attainable goals and then meet them.

• Expect slips. When Norcross studied people who made New Year’s resolutions, he discovered that nearly everyone experienced a slip within the first two weeks of the year. What separated those who succeeded long-term from those who failed was how they viewed their slips.

Successful habit changers saw the slip as a reason to recommit to their efforts, while those who failed long-term “misinterpreted their slips as evidence of their inability to maintain their habit change,” he says. “If you can forgive yourself for the small sins, salvation is still in sight.”

Read more habit-changing wisdom at latimes.com.