Paceyourself

Challenge Proposed Edit

Pace yourself - To select a goal and then work steadily toward that goal.

I would add to that definition that you also set "mini-goals" as you work your way toward your ultimate goal. Any other accomplishments achieved on your path to your ultimate goal are simply bonuses.

2014.09.21 Paceyourself — September 21, 2014

The goal that I set for myself was "How many days in a row can I post without my counter resetting?" and it all started the day I found this post on my talk page. As a side note, the answer to that question is 365 days because at that point -> the counter goes away! It also awards 250 points instead of the normal 100!

My journey started rather insignificantly. I had used the Wiki as a source of information for a few years. Over those years I had made some minor *anonymous* revisions to articles, but nothing substantial. Then I went to Cobalt Scar and noticed that it was pretty much devoid of any substantial content. At that point I got excited about being able to give back to the Wiki I had used for years and so I signed up for an account!

While I was working on Cobalt Scar I got interested in equipment articles. I stumbled upon the equipment redlinks and decided to take it on as a challenge. I began at the top and started methodically working my way through it. One time I mentioned to Lordebon that working in there was like using a bucket to bail out a river. Little did I know how true that was. Even so, I worked in there for months and months trying to whittle that area down. To date I've made it to the S's and there are many, many more to go...

The goal of posting every day at times seemed unattainable because of my weird work schedule and related travel. At one point I thought my counter would reset because of the bandwith issues I had during one particular trip . I've gotta admit, some of the things I had to do over the past year just to keep that counter incrementing, verge on either the insane or the hysterical. I even resorted to using an alarm so I wouldn't forget to post every day. How crazy is that?

Part of my daily "mini-goals" included things like:

Post xx number of pictures
Clear xx number of equipment redlinks
Post as much as possible by a specific time (10:30AM, etc)
Clear xx number of redlinked articles
...and most importantly, Post something so your counter doesn't reset!

These "mini-goals" produced the phenomenon I like to call "surprise bonuses". There were many over the year but these two were unique because I was the first one to achieve them and they were quite unexpected! These milestones occurred as a result of my main goal.

September 12, 2014 - A little box popped up that said I had posted 100,000 articles to categories! Wow! How did that happen?

September 20, 2014 - I'm just bumbling along clearing equipment redlinks and all of a sudden I've posted 7,000 pictures to articles! A bonus of my "mini-goal" for that day!

I have to give ALL the credit for my article contributions to McJeff , Lordebon and Chillispike . Without them I wouldn't be the contributor that I am! They encouraged me, trained me and provided a wealth of their personal knowledge (plus fixed a myriad of my mistakes) . Thank you all so much!

At this point I think I'll stop posting for awhile and work on some things IRL that I let slide while I devoted time to this. LOL, I think if the counter had continued incrementing, I'd be compelled to continue. Thankfully it quit!

The purpose of this post is to show that if I can do it, you can too! I would like to issue a challenge to all current and prospective Wiki contributors, if you haven't already done so, sign up for an account and...

Set yourself a lofty goal and watch the Wiki thrive!

**EQ2 Player Information**
Name	Paceyourself
Age	A "young" 792 EQ2 10+ year veteran
Gender	Dark Elf Male
Guild	Farstrider
RL Loc	Arizona, USA (When not in Freeport) (MST, GMT -0700 )

EQ2 Character Information
Paceyourself
Server	Everfrost
Race	Male Dark Elf
Deity	Innoruuk
Adventuring	Necromancer L100 + 350 AAs
Tradeskill	L97 Sage
Guild	Farstrider
Housing	Everfrost Summer Home (Freeport)