2009 was the year where, coming from two crappy years (medically), I was determined to pick up life where I left it. Where it was sort of ripped away from me. The only way to evolve is to push your limits. Look at what you could of done vs. what you did, create new goals and move forward.

It’s not the end of January but so far I’ve:

• Had a party I wasn’t expecting to have in Vegas. Met a bunch of new people and inadvertently increased my exposure.
• Reached Level 80 in World of Warcraft.
• Ran an instance and raid in World of Warcraft.
• Made a couple of dishes I swore would cause my oven to explode if I tried them.
• Resolved the “where do the missing socks go?” dilemma in my house.
• Did some break-dance moves and didn’t break anything.
• Started the process of having some customized Dunks and AF1s made. So slick…
• Finally decided a direction I wanted to go with my career that I am satisfied with (not that I won’t tweak it).
• Found three new programs to watch on TV. Expand my horizons.

That doesn’t include the goals I achieved with the munchkins. The odd thing, looking back, is that I didn’t say “let me see what I can do different today”. I just did it. I wouldn’t say I’ve changed because I’ve always been that way. I’m picking up where I left off. Now let’s look at another example…

My ex-guild leader created a guild called Hell. It had several hundred members in it. The guild leader had a dream that God would be mad because he created a guild name Hell. When he became ill the next day, he freaked out and disbanded the guild without telling anyone, clearing the bank, etc. Poof, the guild was gone. Next he joined a guild named Hate. Then changed his name to TotalLoser. Then made a one person guild named Worst Player Ever (or something like that). He went from straight PvP to PvE. As I am typing this I looked on my buddy list and he’s changed his name again to Ezeil and he’s in another guild. Last night it was TotalLoser. I told my friend (who was in the guild too) that something was up with the dude and he said I was nuts. He spent a lot of time with him in voice chat and the guild leader was cooler than ever. As a new person I saw things my friend didn’t see.

Then we all watched his public melt down puzzled at what the “real” reason that was pushing him in the direction he was going. Let me be clear, I never would have guessed he’d have a meltdown like he had. I could tell something was bothering him from the way he spoke and what he did. My friend felt bad because he didn’t see it coming. It looks like he’s re-invented himself, moving on from his meltdown. He’s back PvPing which is great because he was really really good. I wish him the best of luck.

My point is that we all fall down (make mistakes, have tough situations to over come, etc.) but what we do after we fall makes all the difference. You can pick yourself up, dust yourself off and continue on in life (what I did) or you can make the situation worse (what my guild leader did).

But to survive you have to dust yourself off and continue on. It’s not easy…recovering from what I went through while I having to be strong for my family was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I’m sure Ezeil felt bad dismembering the guild, not distributing the guild bank and the guilt from that made things worse (it was so public).

In the end, it really doesn’t matter does it? The end result is the same: to survive you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and continue on with the hand that has been dealt to you.