Many Chicagoans are starting out the New Year with inspiring resolutions.
"I want to get abs- like ab muscles. I want to be ripped! That's my resolution," said Carla Ivarra.
"I make the same one every year and it never works! But I'm always striving for it- to drop the extra 20 pounds," said Katherine Hughes.
Hughes has good company, according to a national Marist Poll.
The poll identified popular resolutions:
-17 percent promise to lose weight
-13 percent say they will stop smoking
-10 percent would like to be a better person
-9 percent intend to spend less and save more money
Many set high expectations for themselves.
"I feel like every year people say they want to be a new and better person and it never happens," said Andrea Smith. "That is the reality. The truth is the truth."
Poll results depict a more optimistic picture. Of those surveyed who made resolutions for 2012, 59 percent kept their vow for at least part of the year, while 41percent did not.
Matt Smith is among those who made- and kept- his resolutions.
"For the past two years my wife and I started a tradition of sitting down on New Year's Day and writing out our goals. We review them and keep up with them," he said. "We made a goal last to do a date night once a month and we did it."
While some want to make improvements in their lives, ABC7 met little Jack Smith- who is perfectly content.
We asked Smith if he wanted to change anything in 2013.
"Nope," he answered. "I really like how it is."
