I myself do not really believe in New Years resolutions, I always try to make the upcoming year a better year than the previous year. I grew so weary of people at work asking me what my new years resolution was that I actually finally made one while working and it was a simple one to keep. Of course no one thought that I would really keep it, but for two years in a row I kept it. No one else at work had kept any of their "resolutions". They were more of like you said wishes and dreams on their part.

Going into the third year of their constant triad of new years resolutions and pointing out to them their failures to keep their own I made two resolutions one so that I would never have to make another work new years resolution again, and that was easy to keep, one of the two was not to make any more new years resolutions at work. I stuck with that until I retired, so for 5 years no work new years resolutions.

I think people do not take new years resolutions serious, it is simply a herd mentality, everyone else is making them maybe I should too thing.