New year, new me! Right? 2016 is finally eating dust and living in the past. The turning of a new year is a perfectly ripe moment for setting goals in life and starting a change. High off hope and excitement, everyone is beaming with a refreshed outlook. This year is our year.

Too bad this vibe will last about two weeks -- tops. Then it goes downhill from there.

Wait a second, that's pretty pessimistic. How can every New Year hope and dream be doomed? Let's take a look at some good 'ol trusty psychology and see what science says about resolutions:

Resolutions are a way of people motivating themselves. Duh, we all know that. But according to psychology professor Peter Herman, there is a "false hope syndrome" that could be to blame. Look at it this way: If someone wanted to stop eating fast food, their resolution for the new year would be to "avoid all fast foods starting now." That person would spend the first few days, even weeks, driving past all the McDonald's and Taco Bells with ease. They are riding that 'new year, new me' wave. Eventually, though, the misalignment with their engraved habits will revert back, especially if that person doesn't experience a significantly rewarding movie-esque change in their life because of the resolution. The discouragement and doubt will push the person back at the window to order some fries.

There's a way around the failure. Try to view resolutions as guidelines to changing a behavior. With every behavior, there are patterns of thoughts that drive them. So if the person who wants to avoid fast food decides to change his/her perspective on the food itself, they will have better results. Educate by maybe sitting down and watching a few Netflix documentaries on the food industry (Super Size Me is great) to change how they think about the food. Also, set the goal realistically and with detail, "Avoid fast-foods for 60 days."

Try to stay positive. If setting any goals for this year, make room for some slip-ups. It's human nature to make some mistakes when trying to have some progress. But if you work hard enough, a day at a time, it can be done.