Setting New Year’s resolutions for your hobby in 2023 is a great way to keep you motivated and actually get things done this year!
Another New Year and another new set of Hobby Resolutions! This year I will do a different take on it, as in the past, I have looked at my past year’s resolutions and predictions and compared them to what happened. Then I made a series of new predictions and resolutions for the coming year.
New Year’s Resolutions For Your Hobby in 2023!
Well, I can tell you with kids, Covid, and taxes this past year, I have not met my hobby goals, and GW is much more open with their layout for the coming year than before, so I figured its kind of a moot point to continue like I used to.
Instead, what I am going to do is go over my five goals for this year and how I personally plan on accomplishing them over the year so that it may help you meet your hobby goals as well.
Resolution One: Make it a Point to Get a Weekly Post Written:
I really fell off the bandwagon with this one the past year. With all the new things going on in my non-hobby life, I found it harder to take the time to sit down and write about something. This year I will set aside time at night once a week to get a post written, edited, and posted up to Spikey Bits for weekly consumption.
My current plan is Thursday nights, as those are my least busy night of the week right now, and children willing (please go to sleep on time), I can set aside a couple of hours after bedtime to hunker down in my basement in peace (and maybe a glass of something) to write about what is on my mind.
Resolution Two: Venture Outside of the Age of Sigmar Scene:
I have pretty much written exclusively about Age of Sigmar since I started writing almost five years ago (so many more grey hairs), and I would like to expand outside of that. I still really enjoy the game and am playing a bit more than when last year first started, thanks to my kids being older and Papa Nurgle finally settling down a bit.
However, this year I want to branch into WarCry, which I already have a group together playing once a month, a game from Para Bellum Games called Conquest the Last Argument of Kings that my local group is playing (went with the Nords), and any other tabletop game that comes across my local scene that might be interesting.
I will try and stay away from collectible card games and things of that nature as I don’t have the time and wallet to stay up to date with those types of games, but for things like skirmish or smaller board games, I am more than willing to try.
Along with that, I hope to expand my posts to include those new games and my thoughts and ideas to give some variety to what I am writing about every week.
Resolution Three: Play in More Tournaments:
Last year I managed to play in just one tournament, The Michigan GT, and I was even signed up for the doubles and singles event for three glorious days of gaming. I also played in the doubles tournament, which was super fun, and everyone there had a blast.
I was looking forward to the two-day singles event, which was a bit more competitive, but my daughter got sick and needed me to take her to urgent care, etc., and well, that fell through, so I was limited to a single event for the year. This year I hope to carve out some time to travel, if needed within reason, to some venues to get tournaments in.
Every month probably won’t happen, but if I could make four or five this year, I would be pleased with that, and maybe I can carpool with some of the guys in my local group to make it more of an event.
Resolution Four: Organize & Trade/Sell Stuff I am Never Going to Get to:
I, like many, have stacks of unpainted plastic, and this year I need to have a heart-to-heart with myself and see what I want to keep and what needs to find a better home. There are some models that I have been sitting on myself for four years now that I always mean to get to, but never do and paint something else.
To meet this goal, I am forcing myself to separate my unpainted plastic into two groups; one is the plastic I will surely get to paint on. The next is a group I will try to sell or trade off for other models.
If I can’t see myself choosing to paint a model within the next year, I don’t think I will ever get around to painting that piece. Then I will organize everything I am keeping so that it fits neatly into labeled bins and bags so that when I want to paint something, I have all the pieces I need in one spot that I can grab and get going with.
Hobby New Year’s Resolutions Five: Paint More & Get More Hobby Time:
This one can be feast or famine for me in that I go through periods where I am painting like mad, and then the next thing I know, I have not touched a brush in two weeks. For this one, I am first setting a goal for myself to paint a unit or model or whatever that month (my FLGS does a monthly challenge I can follow as well).
If I reach that goal, I am going to give myself a reward that I might otherwise not get (a new model perhaps, or a bottle of scotch, the possibilities are endless!), but it is going to be something that I otherwise would not buy or do for myself.
For some of my larger units, I am also going to explore speed painting methods that might get the units done faster (looking at my conquest stuff), as I am not going for a golden daemon or anything. I long ago realized that I could be a pretty good painter when I want, but I don’t have the time or patience to really dig into the high level of painting that one can achieve, and that is ok.
If there is a painting competition or anything like that, I might take a single model and go for it to see where I land, but with my time being split so much right now, I am happy with a good-looking unit that looks solid on the table.
Also, starting with this post, I will put at the bottom what I am currently painting and their percentage complete, and hopefully, with some luck, you will see that climb every time I post until they are finished.
There you have my five resolutions for this year that I hope to achieve. Hopefully, you will make and meet your own hobby resolutions for this upcoming year and challenge yourself to meet them!
Current Hobby New Year’s Resolutions on the paint table: 10 Chosen of Chaos, the old school metal ones, and a Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Foot. Paint Status 100% FINISHED! 10 Chaos Warriors 40%
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About the Author: Travis Perkins
