Happy New... Resolutions!

Let me start with wishing each and everyone of you a Happy New Year with much health and prosperity, love and comfort in 2010.

With 2009 behind us and the bright promise of 2010 in front of us, I felt it was time to finally post my resolutions for the upcoming year for everyone to see and perhaps hold me accountable to.

2009 was a tough year for me, not only in game but in my personal life. With many health issues (some from pregnancy and some just to plain bad luck) 2009 will forever go down in my mind as one of the most painful years of my life.

In game, it was the year of After Midnight, dealing with coming back to the game in full raiding force with the haters trailing along the way. Going from a pugging guild to a full raiding guild, stressing out to keep everything running smoothly and finally deciding to leave the server was big.

Now 2010 I'm hoping to bring less stress, more positiveness and a drive like I have never had before in real life as in my raiding life.

So here it is. Love it, hate it - let me know what you think, but this is what I plan to do.

In 2010 I resolve to...

IN GAME

• Become a better Raid Leader - I tend to panic when I feel the raid is losing control and make mistakes when calling things out because of the panic. I plan on being calmer this year all around so raids can be called calmly and accurately.
• Not care so much about what other people think of my guild leading style - in 2009 I got hurt when someone would attack me in game, put me down for decisions I made, etc. I know I am a good leader; I have people who have been playing with me for years and followed me to another server. If I wasn't a good leader people would not follow. I am not going to be afraid anymore to put myself out there anymore. Which is why I am now not afraid to say After Midnight transfered to Turalyon and we're now called Ascendence. If people want to be obessive rolling alts after my old toon name of Napaeae and post on any forum they can, so be it. It's quite sad really that someone has decided to do this and I'm choosing to feel quite bad for them.
• Know the difference when it is time to be a friend vs. GM - In Ascendence, we do something called a "promotion interview" when your 2 week trial period is over to ensure that the applicant likes it in the guild, give them feedback and to hear their feedback. I recently had to do a promo interview for a friend that I have known for almost 4 years. I told him before I started that I was "putting my GM hat on" and took a deep breath and gave him his feedback as a player, guildie and prompted him to give us his candid feedback about the guild. Being the one to evaluate a friend has scared me so much in the past I have tried to avoid it as much as possible. I plan on being more direct this year and this time around. As for the interview with my friend, the "GM Hat" comment prompted giggles and after the open convo about playstyle and guild politics, we joked about how my husband was fail for not paying back the 8 gold he had borrowed the night before.
• Not allow people who call me "friend" to try to use in game - Incidentally, I have also recently had someone try to use our friendship to make me feel bad about not giving them something in game and accusing me of shunning them from my "inner sanctum" so they could get what they wanted. I usually have ended up in previous years bending over backwards trying to accomodate people who do this... It has stopped this year and with this event.
• Do more achievements - Which will probably need to include PvP. As well as this achievement which this person has promised to help me with since he made me screw it up on 2009. /shakes fist
• Take time off - In 2009, I had an almost 100% raid attendance. That is over a year period. I must have missed at max only 2 to 3 raids last year and holding a 4 or 5 day raiding schedule. I raided no less than 208 nights last year and that is not including running 10 mans on the weekends. I'm quite suprised I didn't burn out. I'm thinking if 2010 is a repeat that hoping to not burn out might have a different outcome. Let's not take the chance shall we?

IN REAL LIFE

• Fix my health issues - Even when I was young I was in pain a lot. After I gave birth to my daughter the pain has increased 10 fold and I find myself some days not able to function in even the most mundane situations. Getting on the floor to play with my daughter can sometimes be excrutiating. I resolve to follow everything my doctor tells me to do to "fix me" in 2010.
• Lose weight - I know everyone resolves to do this, but forthe reason stated above, I need to do it for my health. I'm not crazy over weight but I do need to lose the baby pounds from pregnancy. Hubby and I are going to try this diet; a couple of my friends are on it and now look "Fabu".
• Write more - I haven't been writing as often as I would have liked. I started this blog to actually get me away from working on our website, to contribute to something bigger than myself, start a new hobby and stop me from mindlessy trolling forums. I want to up the number of posts I make a week to at least 1 a week; perhaps I might enlist a friend to get the number of posts within the blog up to 2 and put a different perspective to things.
• Buy a new Home - My house is starting to feel very small. It needs a lot of work and if Ace and I decide to have another little one this house is not going to suffice. So if anyone is selling around the lower Laurentians just outside of Laval/Montreal let us know. We're going to be thinking hardcore this year about moving into a nice 3 or 4 bedroom cottage.
• Breath - I found I haven't taken much time for myself this past year. 2010 is going to be about repairing the damage both physically and mentally and I'm going to start with just taking a breath.

What are some of your resolutions this year?