“How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them.”

Benjamin Franklin

There is something cleansing about the beginning of a new year, when folks try to wish away the worst while aspiring for the best from themselves as the calendar flips forward.

With 2016 just a few hours old, almost half of all Americans — a staggering 160 million — have resolved to make improvements in some aspects of their lives. You know the list, and they are remarkably unchanged by the passing of the years: From No. 1 to No. 10, the most popular resolutions are now as they mostly have been: to lose weight; get organized; spend less, save more; enjoy life to the fullest; stay fit and healthy; learn something exciting; quit smoking; help others with their dreams; fall in love; and spend more time with family.

We believe that putting down the cell phone when having a conversation, dining or driving should be next in line, and perhaps will take a place in the top 10 soon enough.

While half of Americans will make resolutions, somewhere in the quaint neighborhood of 8 percent will carry their resolutions through the new year and into the next. It will be even harder in 2016, requiring 24 hours of additional fortitude during a year with 366 days.

So if the math is done, about 5 million Americans will make a permanent change that they see as positive. That is 5 million to the better of none.

The high odds of failure should not be an excuse to say nevermind. If someone resolves to lose 30 pounds but only loses 15, that should be counted as a success, not a failure. If going to the gym four times a week is the goal, but at the end of the year the workouts are half that, again, that is success, not failure. And a two-pack-a-day smoker who becomes a one-day-a-pack smoker is likely to have a longer and more healthy life.

About 75 percent of people who make resolutions will survive their first week, 71 percent their first two weeks, 64 percent a month, and a respectable 54 percent six months, but the tumble is preciptious from there, leaving just one in 12.5 standing at the end of the year. No real surprise here, but enduring bad habits are hard to break: The older a person is, the less likely that person is to keep a resolution throughout the year, going from around 40 percent for a person in their 20s, to about 15 percent for someone in their 50s.

The key here is that once you slip, and almost everyone will, that does not mean the effort has to be abandoned. If you resolve to lose weight, but have an extra piece of pie on Jan. 5, that doesn’t mean your effort should not be rebooted.

So for those of you who have resolved to do better — and we all have some room for improvement — we wish you luck as the new years arrives. But we would also remind you that every day is the beginning of a new year, even if it isn’t recognized by the calendar, so there is never a better time than the present to make those changes that you believe are necessary.

Have at it — and a happy new year.