However — pause here, you decide — if you truly believe in your ability to create meaningful change, then the beginning of a new year is the perfect time to shift course, stop making excuses, take some calming breaths and tune in to what we motivation mavens call your Inner Truth. Yours. It's different for everyone.

What would a healthier, happier lifestyle look like to you? Would you weigh 20 pounds less? Exercise five times a week? Stop after one glass of merlot? (OK, two.) Would you be less judgmental, more compassionate? Would you quit smoking? Spend more time with your family and your friends, less time compulsively checking email? Are you secretly yearning to start meditating? Sign up for yoga? Take a snowboarding lesson?

Once you decide on two or three worthy goals for the new year — we'll call that Step One — the next thing to do is write them down. Oh, no, not that Keep a Journal thing again! Oh, yes. Adding new fitness habits to your routine while giving up chocolate cake and road rage isn't easy. But it is possible. Expect backsliding. Two steps forward, one step back. That's the tango of transformation. That's how change happens. And keeping track of your progress — and your lapses — in a little notebook has proven to be a valuable way to stay on track.

There are other ways, too — all based on research that looks at why some people are successful in reaching their fitness goals and others aren't. It's true that many people fail to keep their New Year's resolutions. (A month without cupcakes feels like a run up Mt. Everest.) But don't let someone else's failure get in the way of your best effort. You aren't most people. You are unique. You can beat the odds because you're going to finish this column, and this year, with a fresh understanding of what it takes to create lasting change:

YOU HAVE TO WANT IT. Your boyfriend may be pushing you to join a gym or stop drinking diet colas, but if you don't want it for yourself, it's not going to happen. You can't change to please someone else. Well, you can, but it won't last. Lasting lifestyle change happens when you are ready, when you are deeply committed, when you decide to take charge of your own health and wellness. Call it your aha! moment, and make sure it happens before a heart attack or a scary diagnosis.

LESS IS MORE. It may feel good — in the moment — to resolve to lose 30 pounds by Valentine's Day, but it's a crazy and counterproductive goal. A pound a week, maybe two, is plenty to shoot for. Same for athletic pursuits. Be realistic. Better to succeed at running one 10k race than dream of a marathon with no plan or real intention of following through. Small victories fuel big changes.

REWARD YOURSELF. Once you set a realistic goal, attach a reward to it. Write it down in your journal. For example: After 15 workouts in a row, I will treat myself to a massage ... or a margarita. Rewards work, and so can big bets with friends, but it has to be for serious cash so you're highly motivated not to lose.

GET SUPPORT. You are more likely to stick to your goals if you play with others on a similar path. That could mean joining a running club or Weight Watchers, or finding a training partner. Misery loves company, but so does success.

LET FAILURE INSPIRE YOU. See failure as feedback. Take it in stride, and don't let it deter you from moving forward — again! — toward your goal. Change is hard work, but you can do it. Know that. Celebrate that. With a cupcake!

Speaking of feedback, I want to hear from you more often. Do you have a resolution success story to share? Send it to Myenergyexpress@aol.com

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"Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right." — Oprah Winfrey

Marilynn Preston — fitness expert, personal trainer and speaker on healthy lifestyle issues — is the creator of Energy Express, the longest-running syndicated fitness column in the country. She has a website, http://marilynnpreston.com To find out more about Preston and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.