New Year's Resolutions

It's that time of year again--time to reflect on my resolutions for 2009 and see how much progress I've made on them, then make new ones for this year.

I think I've done pretty well with some goals, not so well with others:

• "Pursue more opportunities with blogging and writing": 2009 was the year I really started putting more energy into blogging and fashion writing and seeing where these hobbies would take me. High points included being spotlighted in the IFB newsletter and attending fashion weeks in my city, as well as becoming a contributing writer for Vancouver Fashion eZine and the writer behind Two of Hearts's monthly newsletters. In the meantime, my readership grew and I connected with new bloggers (online and in-person), and found a new way of connecting via Twitter. Getting to meet one of my all-time favourite bloggers, Daddy Likey, in Portland was just the icing on top of a fantastic year.
• "Travel to at least one new place": With trips to San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Portland this year, I definitely hit this one out of the ballpark.
• "Go salsa dancing 1-2 times a week": I pretty much kept this up throughout the year--right until the last month and a half or so.
• "Incorporate more fruit into my diet": This one just kills me--I was doing so well with it until fall. I packed fresh fruit with me to work or had some as an evening snack well into August. Then one month after another of being busy, busy, busy made it increasingly harder to plan what I was eating. This was a complete fail in the last 3 months or so.

Interestingly, the goals I set for myself in 2008 have become habits by now. So does that mean New Year's resolutions work and improve your life in the long run? One can only hope.

For 2010, I resolve to:

• Try yoga. As fun as salsa is, I need another form of physical activity for some variety. I'm going to purchase an introductory pass at a yoga studio, try as many different types of classes as I can, and settle on the one I like best. I'm aiming to do yoga once every 1-2 weeks for the rest of this year.
• Become less culinarily challenged. Being surrounded by amazing cooks and foodies has inspired me to lose my kitchen newbie status. To this end, I'm going to make one new dish a week and already bought a recipe book chock full of ideas I'm dying to try. I've been so enthused about this goal I've been talking about it with friends and family for several weeks now, and got a head start during the holiday season by making blueberry muffins (a partial success...I put a tad too much salt into the batter), banana cupcakes with cinnamon frosting (yum), and chicken noodle soup (pretty decent).

I've found that making my goals more concrete helps me accomplish them more easily. For example, if my goal is "save more money," after some thoughtful contemplation, this initial goal could turn into "I'm going to open a savings account and deposit X amount of dollars from every paycheque into it, resulting in Y amount over the course of the year, and I'm going to talk to my bank about finally opening that RRSP." By formulating my goal this way, I'm already halfway there.

Do you make New Year's resolutions? What do you hope to change or accomplish in 2010? How do you plan to do it? Do you have any tips or tricks for making New Year's resolutions stick?