Breakfast Topic: To be the best

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As a competitive person, I do not want to be mediocre at anything I do. I want to be so good at my job that I earn a bonus at annual review time. I want to be early instead of late. I want to be the great mom who comes to all the parent-teacher conferences and always turns in signed permission slips before they're due. Heck, I even want to be in the front of the pack in traffic on the interstate.

I have worked hard to achieve all of this perfection -- and failed miserably. One thing that I've learned through my adult life is that any time you think you're the best at something, 10 other people will come along who show you up. I do the best I can, and I have to will myself to be satisfied with that. If I tried to be the overachiever, then I'd probably stress myself into a heart attack.

It's the same way with World of Warcraft. I want to have maxed-out professions with all the rare recipes. I want to have the highest GearScore, top the DPS chart and hold hate perfectly with no runaways if I'm tanking. I want to get all the achievements, have the coolest vanity pets and ride in on that rare mount no one else has. Yeah, that's what I wish for. But, I am never, ever going to get there.

My mediocrity is not from lack of trying. It's from lack of play time (I'm a mom of three kids with a full-time job) and a lack of speed (not the kind I can drink a potion for -- the kind that makes me react and click the right button in my rotation quickly enough).

I have only one of my five toons leveled up to 80. Her GearScore is decent enough for ICC, but not outstanding. I am in the low-to-medium range of the DPS chart when we run a raid. My tankadin has been stuck in the 70s for two months now because I have tank anxiety. A friend in my guild once said to me that all pally tanks are good tanks. Wrong! I'm passable for my level, but I am not great. My addon threat meter tells me that when I'm not at the top of the chart, and my eyes tell me that when one from the mob keeps breaking away in a dungeon to whack on my healer.

I read, I quest and I update my talent trees and rotation with every current patch. I do everything within my power to be the best. But I have to settle for being second-best in game, as I do in real life -- and that's a hard pill for me to swallow. After all, WoW is a game, and the object of the game is to win ... not to be mediocre.

How does your drive to "win" and be "the best" affect your time in World of Warcraft?

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