When it’s New Year’s resolution time, most of them will be long forgotten in a week or two. How do you make sure you make your resolution permanent?

The key is to establish good habits, said Rob Rouwenhorst, a member of the marketing faculty at the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business. Without building a habit, any resolution is doomed, whether it’s made on New Year’s Day or the middle of May. He said there are two keys to building good habits:

• Start small. You’re not going to lose 50 pounds in a week or quit smoking in a day. Aim at targets you can hit so you feel good and keep at it for the long haul.
• Reward yourself. Changing a behavior is hard so a reward encourages you to keep going. The reward doesn’t even need to make sense. If you want to eat a cookie after working out to improve your fitness, then eat that cookie. It may not be healthy, but it helps establish the good habit of working out that provides long-term benefits.

Rouwenhorst himself used good habits to improve his physical conditioning and lose 45 pounds. His reward for a good workout? A pot of pasta with butter and Parmesan cheese. Once he established his good workout habit, he switched to more healthful rewards.

In class, Rouwenhorst teaches his students how to establish good habits for both professional and personal success. On the first day, he asks them to do one thing to change their behavior in the next week to create a habit, then do it again the next week. It’s always optional and it’s not graded, but he’s pleased that most students humor him and do it anyway. Many keep doing it and change their behavior permanently.