So, 2009. For me, it was a pretty decent, but not exceptional year. I'm in a pretty good job that forces me to stretch and learn (and where I'm rewarded for working hard). I'm seeing a lot of friends semi-regularly. And most days, I can get in an hour or two of entertainment (WOW, TV, reading a book).
It wasn't perfect, and I tried to resolve some of the problems.
Being a WOW guild officer became too much work and too much stress. Multiple times during the year the process went from stressful to thoroughly unhappy -- mostly due to people arguing for weeks on end or making baseless accusations against me. Most of the year, my roommates kept asking "Why is this fun for you?" In the end, I was tired of having to play diplomat 24x7 and decided to take a rest from being an officer. I still talk with the other officers, and I lead a lot of smaller groups, but I'm only peripherally involved in the decision making process now. I log in to have fun now.
Health is better than the previous year, but still not great. Exercise is the main thing lacking right now -- I'm still at least 20 lbs over where I'd like to be. Part of the problem is that it becomes a decision: do I go to the gym, do I watch TV or do I play WOW? Exercise loses because it isn't 'fun'. So that means either making it fun or combining it with one of the other activities. "Pedal faster, we need more damage on that raid boss!"
Cooking fell off my radar last year -- I was stupid busy in the first half of the year, and somewhat lazy in the second half. Again, like exercise, sometimes this is just me prioritizing fun over 'working' in the kitchen. But near the end of the year, I started doing more cooking again, at least to remind myself of what I already can do. But I have lots of recipes I haven't tried yet.
Bottom line is that sitting in front of a computer to play games needs to go down further on the priority list, but it has to do so in a way where I don't lose all my outlets to have fun.
I think 2010 is going to be a lot like 2009 -- a foundational year to build up smaller things rather than a transformational year with life-changing activities. I know the first half of the year will always be busy with work, so my goals for things I want to consciously spend time on are pretty modest:
- House hunting.
- Exercise more.
- Spend more time cooking.