Is there something you’d like to accomplish this year? According to one study, you’re 10 times more likely to accomplish it if you make it a New Year’s resolution. And yet, resolutions have an abysmal track record.

John Tierney, co-author of Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength (with psychologist Roy Baumeister), predicts that by the end of January, a third of resolutions will already be broken. By July, more than half will be abandoned. In the end, some research indicates, only about eight percent of people who make New Year’s resolutions succeed in keeping them.

Much has been written about how to hold yourself to that New Year’s declaration of change. But what if the problem is less about motivation than the kind of resolutions we’re making?

Most resolutions are aspirational: Exercise more, drink less, spend less time online. They rely on willpower to carry us through the year. When willpower falters, the resolution collapses.

But there is another kind of resolution—one that doesn’t require self-reinvention yet has the potential to transform. It’s also one you can realistically keep.

And it’s deceptively easy: Spend one year keeping a journal of both gratitude and kindness.

Why Gratitude and Kindness Belong Together

Years ago, I created a guided journal called A Year of Kindness. The premise was simple. Each day, make a brief journal entry about what you’re grateful for and at least one thing you did for someone else. You don’t need the........

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