As you read this, you have woken up to a brand-new year, writes columnist Graham Bartlett. Just when you became used to writing 2023, 2024 is upon us.

You may be like the 30 per cent of Britons one study suggests will be setting New Year’s resolutions this year. Or if you live in Brighton, you may be in the 14 per cent who do so.

You could be forgiven for thinking that promising to take up, give up or do something better is new, but you’d be wrong.

The first recorded New Year pledges were made by the ancient Babylonians some 4,000 years ago and the practice continued through the Roman era and beyond.

In those days, people pledged their allegiance to the reigning king and made promises to repay debts.

The Romans would pledge renewed bonds between citizens, the state and the deities while medieval knights placed their hands on a live or roasted peacock and renewed their knightly vows of chivalry and valour.

While it is always good to find reason to live healthier or lead a kinder lifestyle, the issue I have with New Year resolutions is that there could not be a worse time to be set up for failure.

Many of us will have just emerged from the excesses of the festive season.

Some – many keyworkers excluded – will have been away from work over Christmas and a quick check of the bathroom scales and bank balance will have prompted us to accept that something needs to change.

In that crisis, and before the real world has been kicked in by the return to work and school, the prospect of success is enticing.

However, when life takes over and those noble promises start to fall by the wayside, the spectre of failure can batter our mental health.

It’s hardly surprising with the deluge of pressure young people feel from social media and peers that over a third of them feel obliged to make resolutions compared with just four per cent of over fifty-fives.

Once set, the observance rate drops remarkably with more than one in five lasting less than a month and just six per cent reaching the nine-month mark.

Habits are hard to break and ambitions to do something new or better require careful thought and planning.

To say, for example, you are going to give up smoking or alcohol is obviously great for your health if you can stick to it.

However, without proper support, a plan and acceptance that lapses might well happen, when taking that first pledge-busting drag or swig the temptation is often to forget the whole idea, saying it was “worth a go” or to plunge into an abyss of self-hate.

Paul Farmer, the former chief executive of the mental health charity Mind, suggested we focus on positivity rather than on issues which create negative self-image.

He said: “We chastise ourselves for our perceived shortcomings and set unrealistic goals to change our behaviour, so it’s not surprising that when we fail to keep resolutions, we end up feeling worse than when we started.”

Dr Susan Anders advises people that rather than think long term into the future, take it one day at a time and make small realistic tweaks you can celebrate rather than a large-scale goal which may create negative pressure and stress.

To this end, The Foundations Wells Center in the US suggests for those who want to start the year afresh to turn their minds to focus on what they are grateful for.

For example, to see how far they’ve come over the previous year, compare themselves only to themselves, set smaller, more attainable goals and to remember, occasional slips are part of the process.

Of course, it’s good to want to make positive changes, to spring clean our lives for the better, but to do so in the hangover of what is for some the most hedonistic time of year and expect miraculous adherence is likely doomed to failure.

I would rather start my detox when I am physically and mentally ready to do so and not be governed by an arbitrary date set as the New Year by Julius Caesar.

But for those who have started their new journey today, I genuinely wish you luck but be kind to yourself.

Your mental health is as important as your physical.

Former Brighton and Hove police chief Graham Bartlett’s Jo Howe crime novels, Bad for Good and Force of Hate, are now published in paperback