Another year is almost over. Hard to believe, isn’t it? I find that the older I get, the faster time passes … and I always find myself asking if I accomplished all I wanted to in the past year.

We’ve all done the New Year’s Resolutions, right? Many of us have made dieting number one on that list … and I can only hope that just as many have resolved never to diet again.

Did you accomplish all you wanted to this year? Did you start 2011 with a specific set of goals – whether it was getting a new job, finding a mate (or losing an old one), getting fitter, eating healthier, etc. – and did you follow through?

Most of us start off a new year feeling very purposeful. We have a clear vision of what we want to accomplish. But then, a week or two after the holidays are over and life starts to feel mundane again, a lot of us lose the strong motivation with which we started out the year.

That’s okay. That’s life! If you didn’t accomplish all you hoped to accomplish (and it’s a rare person who accomplishes everything on her to-do list), the worst thing you could do is beat yourself up about it. The best thing you can do is see it as an opportunity to try again. Just start over, with renewed vigor and an even clearer vision of what you want to accomplish. Assess what may have gone wrong before and try again.

The most important thing is to be kind to yourself—no matter what. If you’ve resolved to ask your boss for a well-deserved and much-delayed raise, and found that you lost your nerve, the most counterproductive thing you can do is hate yourself for it. Acknowledge the fact that – for whatever reason – you just didn’t feel capable of asking, and then ask yourself why. You need to know the answer. Was it fear of the boss’s reaction? Was it a feeling of apathy, like you assumed he or she would just turn you down anyway? Was it shyness or procrastination?

It’s just as important to know the reasons you sidetrack yourself as it is to know where you want to go. Once we know our Achilles Heels – those niggly little things that prevent us from reaching our goals – we can start to deal with them.

The trick is to always keep moving forward. Criticizing yourself only drives you back.

I’d like to take the opportunity to wish all of you a very happy New Year and encourage all of you to reach for your dreams. Happy holidays, everyone, and I’ll see you here next year!

Gabriela Falarz is a blogger, freelance writer and editor, and size acceptance activist. She is a plus-sized woman who believes all large people deserve to be happy, celebrate their beauty and fight for their rights. She is a regular columnist for Large in Charge magazine. She also regularly blogs about fat-related issues in her blog Celebreight Yourself. She lives in Toronto and can be reached by email at gabrielafalarz@gmail.com.