Like millions of other Americans, Tim Willrodt's New Year's resolution is to get in shape.

"This year, I'm forcing myself to train for a 200-mile bike ride from Houston to Austin (Texas)," said Willrodt, who traveled from his Houston home to visit a friend in Ventura over the holidays.

Millions of well- intentioned Americans will make New Year's resolutions today and — as the cliché goes — break them. Then comes a year of excuses and distractions, followed by guilt when the New Year rolls around again. And the resolution resurfaces, followed by resistance.

The cycle repeats itself.

Willrodt, 25, just got out of the military, so there won't be anybody hollering over his shoulder to "drop and give me 20" pushups. He hopes that he can keep himself motivated.

"Up until this point, it's been forced on me," Willrodt said.

Bernadette Danieley of Camarillo, who declined to give her age, doesn't even bother to make resolutions "because I just break them," she said.

Anyone who has made a resolution knows how difficult it is to make a real and lasting change.

According to FranklinCovey's third annual New Year's Resolutions Survey, which polled 15,031 of its customers, just 23 percent of those polled keep their resolutions. Thirty-five percent of the respondents break the resolutions before the end of January. FranklinCovey is a business consulting firm co-owned by businessman Stephen R. Covey, author of numerous best-sellers, including the 1989 "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People."

The reason it's so hard to change is hard-wired, according to experts, but it's not written in stone. They say there are ways to make 2008 the year that resolution truly triumphs over resistance.

Taming fear

According to UCLA psychologist Robert Maurer, the culprit is located in a spot in the medial temporal lobe of the brain called the amygdala.

"It's about the size of an almond, where the alarm system or fear mechanism live," said Maurer, who trains residents at UCLA Medical Center. "The bigger the step you decide to take, the more the fear shows up."

Fear is a lifelong ally as it keeps us safe, Maurer said, but it also can sabotage us. It will try to keep us rooted in the known and shies away from the unknown, especially if, after an indulgent holiday season, we go whole hog toward a resolution and overwhelm ourselves, he said.

"People usually make change in two ways that are self-defeating," Maurer said. "They do it at the end of the year when they're often upset or angry at themselves that they haven't already made the changes in their lives. Then we go through this year-end ritual in which we torment ourselves."

Say, for example, your resolution is to get in shape. You may hire a trainer, join a gym, set aside two hours a day to work out. The amygdala kicks in and screams "danger!" Suddenly, you don't have the time or the money for a trainer. And before you know it, you've given up.

The trick to change, Maurer said, is to calm the fear by reducing the size of the steps you take. If the step is too big, make it smaller. And smaller still.

"Ridiculously small," Maurer said. "For people who aren't exercising, we encourage them to exercise one minute a day."

Seriously. One minute. For five or six days a week for three to five weeks. The brain gets used to the behavior. New neuropathways are forged, so you can increase the time you exercise without triggering fear. Before long, the behavior is part of the routine that the amygdala now reads as "safe."

It's part of a Japanese organizational model called "kaizen," which Maurer details in a 2004 book, "One Small Step Can Change Your Life: Using the Japanese Technique of Kaizen to Achieve Lasting Success."

Maurer said he wrote the book one minute at a time.

Support and motivation

Folks like Randy Globerman, a firefighter from Ventura, can muster enough willpower to make a change and make it stick, no matter what time of year it is.

"I don't need the first of the year to motivate me," Globerman said. "I'm an all-or-nothing' kind of guy."

But for the rest of us, willpower is fickle.

"One thing you have to remember is your old behavior is reinforced hundreds, even thousands of times," said Noah Blumenthal, a New York-based executive coach and organizational psychologist. "People think all they need is willpower. No matter how badly you want it, there are going to be times when that willpower fluctuates or even disappears."

Blumenthal — author of the 2007 book "You're Addicted to You: Why It's So Hard to Change — and What You Can Do About It" — travels around the U.S. lecturing. In 2007, he was voted one of the 100 Top Minds on Personal Development — along with Oprah Winfrey — by Leadership Excellence magazine.

When speaking to audiences about achieving successful change, he recommends bringing in reinforcements for those times when willpower wanes.

Blumenthal recommends recruiting another buddy trying to change. Call each other once a week and check in. Keep each other mutually accountable.

He also suggests keeping your goals in sight — literally. Post your resolution on your mirror, your refrigerator or as a screen saver on your computer.

"I have commitments for my parenting," Blumenthal said. "I have them taped to the light switch in my office. It's the last thing I see every night as I leave."

Path of least resistance

Finally, implement small behaviors that push you toward the larger change. For example, if your resolution is to eat less, you might place your napkin over your plate the moment that you feel full, or declare to your fellow diners that you're done eating.

Set the stage for success, Blumenthal said, by packing your gym clothes the night before. Place the bag in front of the door so you'll trip on it if you don't take it with you.

"The neuropathways you now have are all guiding you toward your routine — the path of least resistance," he said. "All of these new behaviors are creating new neuroconnections."

Of course, then there are people like Scott Quirarte of Ventura, who knows that he'll keep his resolution because of his ironclad support system.

His New Year's resolution, he said, is "whatever my wife says it is."