Tradition dictates that each new year is an opportunity for self-improvement. Perhaps you have designated 2017 as the annus mirabilis in which you will finally become thinner, fitter or richer. In which case, you are likely to end the year with much the same midriff, vigour and bank balance as you had in 2016.

New year’s resolutions are not to be undertaken lightly — and certainly should not be popped out on December 31 with the same abandon as champagne corks. That is because they are about behaviour change, which is a difficult feat to pull off at any time of the year.

It is hard to pluck out a reliable figure about the proportion of people who stick to their good intentions, but one survey of more than 2,000 people found that 56 per cent do not.