Resolutions

On New Year’s Eve, I was at a friend’s house celebrating and having a good time in general. I played a clutch game of Taboo of guys vs girls. Heh, one of the memorable ones went something like this:

Aimed shot!
HUNTER!
YES!

All the guys cracked up and all the girlfriends had confused looks on their faces. It was glorious.

Once 12 AM hit, we did the usual toasting and cheering and we went around the room listing off resolutions we’d all do this year. This was done to the sound of a modern day Mo-Town type group on the TV (I resolve to sing on-key in Rock Band). Some of the ones I heard were realistic (I resolve to maintain a 3.0 GPA), to the downright impossible (I will never drink again). Then there were the usual ones that people say every year that never goes through (I resolve to lose 30 pounds).

Of course, the last one was made by me. Then a friend spoke up and said something like this:

”Matt, you shouldn’t do that. Don’t set a goal as a resolution. Set a process. Resolve to walk around for at least 30 minutes a day. There’s a Starbucks nearby you, I know that much. Or even go to the public library. Spring and summer are a few months away. Come out and play soccer with us sometime.

And I thought about it and I realized he’s right. You can’t have a goal without a way of attaining it.

Blog

Goal 3000 subscribers

Process: Continued discipline in blogging, raising awareness of posts, more use of Twitter. This blog is in it for the long haul as is the editorial team. Double or nothing.

Goal Increased content (to at least 1.5 posts per day)

Process: Further expansion into the healing arena. More partnerships with player/bloggers. Looking to team up with a Resto Shaman, Holy Paladin and a Disc Priest on the blog to provide more.

Game

Goal Top 10 server

Process: Ner’Zhul is one of the most competitive servers to play on in terms of raiding. Around 20 guilds have taken down Malygos and done Sartharion with 1 drake alive. To do this, loot council will have to continue making smart choices. I need to remain diligent about upcoming raid content and experience it first hand myself via the PTRs if it’s possible.

Goal Avoiding burnout

Process: For the sake of myself and the blog, I cannot risk overdoing it. Healing is both fun and stressful. I can’t do it all the time or else I risk losing interest or not playing my best. To do this, I may level an alt like my Paladin or have some more fun on my Shaman (who is now 2/5 T7.5).

Goal Raid achievements

Process: Going to start looking at these in more detail and determine what we can do and what’s out of our reach. I’m going to start publishing achievement strategies (or at least, my proposed approach).

Personal

Goal Let things go

Process: There are people out there who intentionally go out of their way to try to irritate me for no reason (in life, in game, etc). Yeah it’s annoying and it’s incredibly dumb for them to do that. I’m just going to ignore them until they have something intelligent to say.

Goal GPA to 2.5

Process: The last semester saw my GPA climb to a 2.25. That’s enough for me to get into my program. I got momentum going into the exam. Found me study buddies, converted all my notes, and (the key) applied real life examples to all the concepts I learned. I realized late that the best way to understand a concept is to apply it.

This will be an intriguing 2009. More guest posts are coming (thanks to all the submitters)! A lot of ideas are on the to-write list.

But I think I’m going to go for a walk first.

Check out some other New Year resolutions from the WoW bloggerati:

• Altoholic’s Are Us: Out with the Old…
• Orly Factor: My Tanking New Years Resolution

What are your resolutions? Feel free to add it to the comments below or write on your blog with a linkback here (it shows up under trackbacks).

Image courtesy of sofijab