Every year it's the same. Fireworks, champagne, and kisses at midnight, everyone's glassy eyes full of hope and promise as the New Year's Eve party vows to (fill in the blank) stop smoking, ride an elephant, jump out of a plane, run for office, lose weight, spend more time at home. Then reality rears its head, the new year grows old, and resolutions recede behind daily life. Shoulders are shrugged and the mantra "next year" is repeated.

But next year will blow by, too. Now's the time to make a change. Below three professionals offer tips on how to stick to your goals. The answers may sound simple. That's the point.

First of all, your goal has to be realistic. Because of popular New Year's resolution No. 1 - to lose weight - there's a January surge in health club memberships that tends to slow after 60 days, says Sam Owens, fitness director at Midtown Athletic Club. Owens says the drop off happens when people get discouraged over lack of results, or when their routine gets boring. To prevent this, he suggests dumping the wish to "lose weight" - it's too obscure - for a plan to, say, lose 20 pounds in six months, which is much easier to execute. Owens adds that working with a trainer can keep things interesting workout-wise.

"And," he says, "write down your goal." Spelling it out on paper will make the goal more clear and help you begin to develop a plan.

Once your goal is set, the challenge is to stay focused. Diana Robinson, a certified personal effectiveness coach, says to consider your motivation.

"The goal is only part of the process to getting something else. It's the ‘something else' that's important," she says. Robinson encourages her clients to create a collage of relevant cutouts and tape it up somewhere where they'll see it every day. This keeps the goal, and more importantly, the idea behind the goal, fresh and visible. On the days when success seems distant, Robinson asks more questions: what's getting in the way? Is it that deep down you don't really want it? If that's the case, maybe you need to tweak your goal. Or maybe it's that mundane daily life needlessly swallows your time. No matter what the problem is, identifying it will lead to a solution and renewed focus on the endgame. Success, Robinson says, has many meanings. "Success can be being more serene," she says, or "having your life the way you want it."

Eller Ross, clinical coordinator at Strong Hospital's Recovery Methadone Maintenance Clinic, has worked for years helping patients through long-term addictions. She recognizes the importance of inner strength for a person to succeed in anything, be it to give up their habit or follow through with the simplest of resolutions.

"You have to, somewhere, have an internal desire to do this," Ross says. But even if the desire exists, she acknowledges, making a change can still be daunting.

"You have to have a support staff," she says, "and you have to have the ability to listen." Ross touts the importance of lifestyle choices as well.

"You can't clean up from crack if you're livin' in the crack house," she says, adding that the same goes for those who try to lose weight but eat at Dunkin' Donuts. Get your family and friends on board, if you can, Ross says, and they'll help keep you in line.

Over at Midtown, Owens sees club members becoming each other's support group. "It's a big social environment," he says, adding, "People who exercise in groups stay with it longer."

Which brings us to the bottom line. To achieve whatever it is you really want this year, there's no magic wand. Just keep your goal simple and realistic, keep it visible, and gather your own set of "troops" to rally you when you hit a rough spot. Follow these guidelines and you just may see your resolution to its fulfillment. Then you'll have something new to toast when '08 becomes '09.