Happy New Year! After a nice two-week break from pixels — other than those occurring in Nintendo Wii and DS games — I’m back and raring to go. Which leads to my first resolution of 2010: Never again describe myself as “raring” to do anything.

Before I post my resolutions for the coming year, I figured it would be a good idea to do a check-up of last year’s goals. Because what good is posting the resolutions if you don’t know whether or not I’ve met them?

You can read the original post, or you can just follow this abbreviated list:

1. Sell lots of books.

I did decent enough on this one. Most of this goal involved getting rid of the excess copies of the first edition of Pocket Guide to the Bible. I “sold” thousands of them in last July’s big giveaway. Didn’t make much money that way, but sold is sold. The new Pocket Guides released in August, and their sales have been steady. Not “lots” by any means, but OK.

2. Read 12 books.

One a month. Not too much of a challenge, but still something I have to be disciplined about since I don’t have too much free time. I didn’t make a list of all the books I ready this year, but I’m quite sure they totaled more than a dozen. Some notables include the Twilight series (4 books!); The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book 1); Outliers; The Outlaw Sea; Jesus, Interrupted; another book whose title slips my mind but was a scholarly look at the Bigfoot legend (I’m such a nerd), and a few more.

Oh, and since we’re on the subject? In most cases, when I link to a book on Amazon, I get a few cents if you follow that link and end up making a purchase. I’m telling you this in my first blog post of the year so the FCC doesn’t ship me off to Siberia or something.

3. Exercise at least four times a week.

Done. I wasn’t overzealous about it or anything — there certainly were some weeks where I didn’t get three full exercise sessions in — but I bet if you averaged it I came pretty close. A good balance of strength training, running, biking, swimming, with a little CrossFit stuff thrown in for variety.

4. Participate in three sprint triathlons.

Done. Amarillo Chick-Fil-A Sprint (June 20, and which ended up being a bikeless duathlon thanks to the rain), Amarillo Town Club Sprint (July 18, in which my whole family competed in some fashion), and the big Tri to Make a Difference (Sept. 12, in which a lot of you very graciously sponsored me).

5. Participate in another single-category race/competition.

Did two of these. One was a 5k leg in a 15k relay race in June. The other was a one-hour swim competition in February.

6. Waste less.

Sort of hard to quantify this one, but I did spend the year more cognizant of the amount of stuff I was using, from coffee cups to paper. I got set up with vermicomposting (composting with worms!) which was going well until most of my worms died in June. Total wormpocalypse. I’ve built the colony back up, though, and they’re currently enjoying my coffee grounds and table scraps.

7. Finish four paintings.

Not so good. I only did one painting this year, and I didn’t start it until December. Boo!

8. Limber up enough to be able to touch my toes.

Fail. I spent a couple of months doing a daily stretching routine that was supposed to help me touch my toes, but I still could never do it. I must have some kind of super-tight ligament running through my body that keeps me from jack-knifing.

9. Run a mile in less than 6:15.

Nope. Didn’t do this one either. Best time I got for a mile was 6:40, though admittedly I only timed myself on the local track 3 or 4 times. Once I started the triathlon training, this wasn’t a priority. Someday, though.

10. Get a few more book-related speaking engagements.

The speaking thing stayed pretty quiet this year, and I didn’t pursue it much. With O Me of Little Faith coming out in April, though — it’s a much more speaking-friendly book, if that makes sense — I’m going to be more intentional about this.

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6 out of 10. Not a great percentage, but I’m satisfied with it. I aimed high.

What about you? Tomorrow I’ll post my resolutions for 2010. Until then, what personal goals did you accomplish in 2009? Did any of you meet all your resolutions? A lot of people tend to go with broad resolutions like “Exercise more,” whereas mine get pretty specific Does anyone else do this? Do you think annual resolutions are stupid? Please share.