Happy New Year vagabonders! As we head into 2010, let's think about going further than making New Year's Resolutions. Brave New Traveler advocates making your own personal manifesto . Start writing down goals, collecting articles and pictures, putting anything vagabonding-related into it. Instead of a new year resolution that's filed and forgotten, a personal manifesto...

I’m not a fan of once-a-year resolutions. I usually try to be mindful—throughout each week, month and year—to make changes and adjustments in my life as I need them. Just like those yearly resolutions, sometimes my intentions work and sometimes they don’t. That’s why, every Jan. 1, I try to set the tone for my...