This missive is written a few days following Christmas as thoughts have turned toward the end of the year. As 2009 approaches, we are entering that moment when we reboot our psyche.
Though I am probably the world’s leading practitioner of critical self-examination, I have always felt that the New Year allowed us to reset our lives during the one time when it is permissible to forgive and forget our prior mistakes. Even though the weather is typically dreadful, the calendar change allows us a figurative breath of spring.
Most often this takes the form of a “New Year’s Resolution.” Let’s ignore for a moment those crazy ideas about losing weight, kicking that pesky heroin habit and other such trifles. We shall focus on the outdoors.
In relation to the outdoors, I find myself in the midst of my annual “get serious” binge. Having seen this particular malady affect friends and acquaintances, I’m fairly confident the disease is widespread in the outdoor world.
The diagnosis is easy: the patient earnestly believes that he will land bushels of fish, bag barrels of ducks, tag many more trophy deer and generally conquer the outdoor world if he or she will only become more “more serious” in their pursuit.
For instance, if a co-worker asks, “Did you get a deer this year?” the answer typically runs something like, “Yeah, but it was small. Next year I’m gonna start scouting earlier, have a better stand and get really serious about deer hunting.”
Why do we make such annual promises? That answer is easy: we are never satisfied. Regardless of how many wonderful experiences we have in the outdoors, most humans are greedy and want more. In some people, there is also the competitive nature to catch one more fish or score one more bird than their buddy.
In my case outdoor writers, even half-blooded outdoor writers like Yours Truly, feel pressure to produce. After all, we’ve held ourselves out to be The Expert In These Matters, regardless if that title is justified. Therefore it seems incumbent that we must have outstanding results every time we pick up a fishing pole, gun or backpack.
Thus, it is commonly held that the best way to reach our ever-increasing outdoor goals is by becoming “more serious” about the particular activity. It seems like a reasonable supposition that since we know the “experts” are all serious, therefore we must also become serious ourselves to experience similar results. Being serious means making a major commitment to expend more time, energy and money to achieve outdoor perfection, whatever we consider that yardstick to be.
I’ve personally made thousands of such promises over the years. I’ve vowed to get serious about deer hunting, fly tying, mushroom hunting, canoeing, ice fishing, backpacking, dog training, skeet shooting, goose hunting, archery, smallmouth fishing, target shooting, trout fishing, scuba diving, spelunking and a approximately seven million other outdoor activities.
In this quest, I’ve ran up the credit cards, studied arcane books for hours on end, talked to hundreds of rather boring people and spent countless hours trying to achieve some sort of mystical perfection in my game. Unfortunately, the result is always the same: a fervent hope that next season will be better. It’s rather comical in fact that the same earnest but ultimately futile promises are every year about this time.
So, in 2009, I’ve decided to get serious about something else: lowering my expectations.
After going through some recent major life changes that put things into better perspective, there is the realization that I am already serious enough about my chosen endeavors. Upon reexamining the way I have pursued the outdoors, it is apparent that all this trying didn’t reap the enjoyment I sought. I’m no longer going to make vows to go fishing more often or bag bigger deer or take a more exotic hiking trip.
Even though I have often preached on this matter, it has become apparent that I’ve not taken a big healthy dose of my own medicine. Instead, I’ve been trying harder to catch some mythical brass ring that is ultimately unreachable anyway. It’s become apparent that I lost something along the way.
Now, instead of focusing on gear, trophies, bag limits and the absurd pursuit of becoming the Zen Master of all things outdoors, I will try to be happy with the experience, the richness of the senses and the lessons learned rather than some artificial status. So what if a buddy catches more or bigger fish? The important question will be: did I have fun?
Therefore, my New Year’s resolution is much simpler than in the past. I’m going to focus back on the journey rather than the destination, the means rather than the end and the larger goal of enriching my life through experiences rather than results.
I am really serious about that.
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Get Serious
Posted by Brent on 9/05/09 • Categorized as Out in the Open columns
This missive is written a few days following Christmas as thoughts have turned toward the end of the year. As 2009 approaches, we are entering that moment when we reboot our psyche.
Though I am probably the world’s leading practitioner of critical self-examination, I have always felt that the New Year allowed us to reset our lives during the one time when it is permissible to forgive and forget our prior mistakes. Even though the weather is typically dreadful, the calendar change allows us a figurative breath of spring.
Most often this takes the form of a “New Year’s Resolution.” Let’s ignore for a moment those crazy ideas about losing weight, kicking that pesky heroin habit and other such trifles. We shall focus on the outdoors.
In relation to the outdoors, I find myself in the midst of my annual “get serious” binge. Having seen this particular malady affect friends and acquaintances, I’m fairly confident the disease is widespread in the outdoor world.
The diagnosis is easy: the patient earnestly believes that he will land bushels of fish, bag barrels of ducks, tag many more trophy deer and generally conquer the outdoor world if he or she will only become more “more serious” in their pursuit.
For instance, if a co-worker asks, “Did you get a deer this year?” the answer typically runs something like, “Yeah, but it was small. Next year I’m gonna start scouting earlier, have a better stand and get really serious about deer hunting.”
Why do we make such annual promises? That answer is easy: we are never satisfied. Regardless of how many wonderful experiences we have in the outdoors, most humans are greedy and want more. In some people, there is also the competitive nature to catch one more fish or score one more bird than their buddy.
In my case outdoor writers, even half-blooded outdoor writers like Yours Truly, feel pressure to produce. After all, we’ve held ourselves out to be The Expert In These Matters, regardless if that title is justified. Therefore it seems incumbent that we must have outstanding results every time we pick up a fishing pole, gun or backpack.
Thus, it is commonly held that the best way to reach our ever-increasing outdoor goals is by becoming “more serious” about the particular activity. It seems like a reasonable supposition that since we know the “experts” are all serious, therefore we must also become serious ourselves to experience similar results. Being serious means making a major commitment to expend more time, energy and money to achieve outdoor perfection, whatever we consider that yardstick to be.
I’ve personally made thousands of such promises over the years. I’ve vowed to get serious about deer hunting, fly tying, mushroom hunting, canoeing, ice fishing, backpacking, dog training, skeet shooting, goose hunting, archery, smallmouth fishing, target shooting, trout fishing, scuba diving, spelunking and a approximately seven million other outdoor activities.
In this quest, I’ve ran up the credit cards, studied arcane books for hours on end, talked to hundreds of rather boring people and spent countless hours trying to achieve some sort of mystical perfection in my game. Unfortunately, the result is always the same: a fervent hope that next season will be better. It’s rather comical in fact that the same earnest but ultimately futile promises are every year about this time.
So, in 2009, I’ve decided to get serious about something else: lowering my expectations.
After going through some recent major life changes that put things into better perspective, there is the realization that I am already serious enough about my chosen endeavors. Upon reexamining the way I have pursued the outdoors, it is apparent that all this trying didn’t reap the enjoyment I sought. I’m no longer going to make vows to go fishing more often or bag bigger deer or take a more exotic hiking trip.
Even though I have often preached on this matter, it has become apparent that I’ve not taken a big healthy dose of my own medicine. Instead, I’ve been trying harder to catch some mythical brass ring that is ultimately unreachable anyway. It’s become apparent that I lost something along the way.
Now, instead of focusing on gear, trophies, bag limits and the absurd pursuit of becoming the Zen Master of all things outdoors, I will try to be happy with the experience, the richness of the senses and the lessons learned rather than some artificial status. So what if a buddy catches more or bigger fish? The important question will be: did I have fun?
Therefore, my New Year’s resolution is much simpler than in the past. I’m going to focus back on the journey rather than the destination, the means rather than the end and the larger goal of enriching my life through experiences rather than results.
I am really serious about that.
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