A NEW YEAR FILLED WITH PROMISE(S)\Like the rest of us, celebrities draw up lists of resolutions.

Byline: Jenifer Hanrahan Daily News Staff Writer

It's New Year's resolution time again. Less-than-perfect Americans will smoke their last cigarette, eat their last piece of chocolate and set their alarms for 6 a.m. so they can get up for before-work jogs.

Yeah, right.

For most people, sticking to a resolution is about as likely as balancing their checkbook every month.

But not everybody caves in so easily. Some people lose weight (and keep it off), avoid bad relationships and seem to have enough self-restraint to go around.

We asked 10 "experts" in the good life - people we look to for motivation, answers and generally good spirits - about their past resolutions and whether they've stuck to them over the years. Here are their answers:

Pat Boone, television star and singer: "My resolution for the last few years has been, and I did make some progress, to be punctual. I start out each year and say, 'I'm going to leave early and get places on time and try not to cram so much in ...' Some of my friends call me 'the late Pat Boone.' I hate that ... I'm going to try to be 'punctual Pat.' I'll be 'the late Pat Boone' some other time. I'm in no hurry to earn that.

"I did decide five years ago I was going to read the Bible through the year. I did stick to it, and I've done it about five times, reading 10 or 15 minutes a night ... It is an incredible feeling of accomplishment to get to December and Deuteronomy, those other places where I always bogged down and quit."

Ann Landers, syndicated advice columnist: "I do not make New Year's resolutions and I never have. I believe that 98 percent of the people who do, fall off by Feb. 1."

Fred Rogers, host of the children's television show "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood": "To me, a New Year's resolution is like a promise to ourselves to keep going, so we can better understand ourselves and others. There's a quotation from the book 'The Little Prince' by Antoine de Saint-Exupery that I try to keep in mind for my own growing: 'What is essential is invisible to the eye.' It helps me remember how much there is to appreciate in each other that is beyond what meets the eye."

Christopher Nance, NBC (Channel 4) weatherman: "I set them religiously every year. I'm one of those people who has to write it down at the beginning of every day, at the beginning of every year, what I'm going to do. I'm good with that. ... I didn't make last year's resolution, though. I was supposed to meet the girl of my dreams and fall in love in 1995. I really seldom repeat my resolutions since that one failed so miserably. I don't want to be reminded.

"I do have resolutions this year. I want to continue to see as many boys and girls as I can to motivate and to build their self-esteem through my program 'Let's Talk Weather.' I don't ever want to feel I'm successful enough to forget them. ... And this year, more than ever, I want to spend more time with my 12-year-old little girl, Noel. It's more important to make that flight and drive to her school just to hang out with her, to be there for her birthday parties, for Christmas, for her recitals.

"The other one - I do three resolutions a year - is more personal for me. I'm thinking about starting a publishing company to publish children's books."

Joyce Brothers, psychologist: "I've made resolutions for many years, but I don't need to anymore because I followed them. I lost those 10 extra pounds. I started exercising, and I've been saving money. ... There's nothing left to resolve. I've really been good. I never smoked, so I never had to give up smoking."

Deepak Chopra, motivational speaker and author of best-selling books about healthy lifestyles: "I make the same one every year - to embrace the wisdom of uncertainty even more than the previous year. I like to live in uncertainty. I ask the powers that be to make my life even more uncertain than the previous year. That way, I have even more magic and adventure and joy in my life."

Susan Powter, fitness and nutrition advocate: "The most important statement is that resolutions, like diets, don't work. Whoever invented this resolution thing, we should shoot them. Who has ever stuck to a resolution more than a day and a half? ... Why you think you're going to wake up on Jan. 1 and be able to do it when you couldn't do it the week before? It's a setup for failure.

"I'm 38 this year. ... I changed my life and decided my resolution needed to be daily - to move forward in all things, as a parent, as a friend, as a woman, in my career."

Judith Martin (a k a Miss Manners), etiquette expert: "When you're perfect, it's tough to find a topic."

Laura Schlessinger, KFI-AM (640) talk show psychotherapist and author of "10 Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives": "I don't believe in New Year's resolutions. They're silly and useless. People sit there and they bemoan and whine and make a promise that's usually pretty empty. ... They say, 'I am going to lose weight.' It's not concrete. They're done in self-hating desperation.

"I never look at myself at this time of the year any other way. I always am scrutinizing myself, my morality, my goals, my behavior ... I don't just rev it up for Jan. 1. I'm doing it all the time."

Richard Simmons, fitness and nutrition advocate: "My goal next year is: I'm going to be 6-foot-2, have blue eyes and do a sequel to 'Baywatch.' ... No really, I have stayed in a 10-pound range of my weight for 21 years, and I hope that continues because I am still a 12-year-old eating a fried bologna sandwich with a Yahoo and a Kit Kat bar fresh from the freezer. If I can do that, I'll be a very happy camper. Did anyone say camping? Oh, s'mores!"

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Photo (1--3--Cover--Color) From left Miss Manners, Mr. Rogers and Pat Boone. (4--Cover--Color) Richard Simmons (5--Cover--Color) Susan Powter (6) Deepak Chopra "To embrace the wisdom of uncertainty even more than the previous year." (7) Christopher Nance "I want to spend more time with my 12-year-old little girl." (8) Pat Boone "Friends call me 'the late Pat Boone.' ... I'm going to try to be 'punctual Pat.' " (9) Richard Simmons "I'm going to be 6-foot-2, have blue eyes and do a sequel to 'Baywatch.' " (10) Ann Landers "I do not make New Year's resolutions and I never have."