New Year's resolutions are only worthwhile if they get you in the woods or on the lake more
Posted by Jesse White on Thursday, January 3, 2013 Under: Outdoors resolutions
Generally, I try not to make New Year's resolutions that are going to take a lot of work or require any life altering changes.
It's not that I'm lazy or afraid of a challenge, I just feel that if you are going to go with one of the usual resolutions like lose weight or stop drinking alcohol or whatever, then you should mean it when you declare "I'm not doing (fill in the blank) anymore."
Otherwise, you're really wasting your time. You have to be willing to commit to your goal.
That's why I traditionally keep my New Year's resolutions focused mostly on the outdoors and ways for me to get there.
First, I know there's a 99 percent chance that I'm going to do whatever I have to do to make those declarations happen.
Second, let's be honest, it's an easy win.
A slam dunk.
We all like a winner and winning makes us happy so why not reach for goals that are not only attainable and winnable but damn fun at the same time.
My advice: Forget the treadmill and skip the AA meetings - make it a goal this year to get your butt outside and enjoy what Minnesota has to offer!
So with that in mind I've come up with three New Year's Resolutions for the year 2013 that I will - I repeat - I WILL make happen.
No. 3: Go wild turkey hunting.
This is one of those things I've said I was going to do many times in the past but never really took the initiative to actually do it. Part of the reason I've failed to act on this wish is that there aren't a lot of wild turkeys near my home on the Iron Range and finding a spot to go hunting will take a little work.
But this year I'm willing to put in the effort to find a good place, put in my application and see what I can do. The idea of calling a wild turkey and getting a shot off is fascinating to me. From what I've heard and read, it's not an easy hunt by any means, particularly because you only get a couple of days to get the job done.
It will be a challenge no doubt, but a challenge I'm looking forward to. By the way, the application deadline for this year's spring turkey hunt in Minnesota is Jan. 11. An application information sheet is available from any DNR license agent and online. Hunt information materials include a map of wild turkey permit areas, permit quotas and season dates.
Information also is available by calling the DNR Information Center at 651-296-6157 or toll-free -888-646-6367.
A total of 5,781 permits are available.
No. 2: More fishing.
Living in the heart of the Land of 10,000 Lakes, just 30 minutes from Lake Vermilion in Tower/Cook and about an hour from Grand Rapids area lakes, AND being an outdoors writer, you'd think I'd be on the lake fishing for walleye or crappie everyday.
But alas, over the past decade or so it just hasn't worked out that way.
When I was young and ambitious I was on the water or near the water chasing fish whenever I had a spare moment. When it was raining I was in the outdoors store searching out new and better and shinier lures.
The fishing started to slow down when I got married and after I started having kids it quickly became the first thing on the list I didn't have time for.
For several years I went entire summers without dipping a line but the trend as of late has been me and my dad or a kid or two getting out on the lake once, maybe twice each summer.
Once or twice is really just unacceptable.
There just always seems to be some excuse, of course, or some reason why I can't go or can't get out there.
But not this year. I resolve to fish as much and as often as I can rain or shine.
No. 1: More hunting.
Of the three resolutions we've discussed here, and this one kind of goes hand-in-hand with No. 3, more hunting should be the easiest to keep.
I know it will be easier to keep then No. 2 if for no other reason other than the hunting season coincides with when the kids go back to school so that opens up several hours a day right there.
The only problem I see with maximizing this particular resolution is finding MORE days to go hunting this fall then I had last fall.
As some of you may know, I quit my longtime job as Outdoors Reporter at the Mesabi Daily News last August and that afforded me mucho free time to get out and chase game.
What many of you don't know (although those close to me probably had their suspicions) I quit when I did just so I could hunt each and every day!
Now, whether I'll be working a job other than this blog and website come next September is anyone's guess at this point, but even if I'm just a full-time house husband and outdoors writer, it's still going to be tough to top the fall of 2012.
But it won't be for a lack of trying. That is why we make resolutions, after all, to motivate us to succeed and push ourselves to be the best that we can be.
Hey, a guy's gotta have goals.
See ya in the woods!
It's not that I'm lazy or afraid of a challenge, I just feel that if you are going to go with one of the usual resolutions like lose weight or stop drinking alcohol or whatever, then you should mean it when you declare "I'm not doing (fill in the blank) anymore."
Otherwise, you're really wasting your time. You have to be willing to commit to your goal.
That's why I traditionally keep my New Year's resolutions focused mostly on the outdoors and ways for me to get there.
First, I know there's a 99 percent chance that I'm going to do whatever I have to do to make those declarations happen.
Second, let's be honest, it's an easy win.
A slam dunk.
We all like a winner and winning makes us happy so why not reach for goals that are not only attainable and winnable but damn fun at the same time.
My advice: Forget the treadmill and skip the AA meetings - make it a goal this year to get your butt outside and enjoy what Minnesota has to offer!
So with that in mind I've come up with three New Year's Resolutions for the year 2013 that I will - I repeat - I WILL make happen.
No. 3: Go wild turkey hunting.
This is one of those things I've said I was going to do many times in the past but never really took the initiative to actually do it. Part of the reason I've failed to act on this wish is that there aren't a lot of wild turkeys near my home on the Iron Range and finding a spot to go hunting will take a little work.
But this year I'm willing to put in the effort to find a good place, put in my application and see what I can do. The idea of calling a wild turkey and getting a shot off is fascinating to me. From what I've heard and read, it's not an easy hunt by any means, particularly because you only get a couple of days to get the job done.
It will be a challenge no doubt, but a challenge I'm looking forward to. By the way, the application deadline for this year's spring turkey hunt in Minnesota is Jan. 11. An application information sheet is available from any DNR license agent and online. Hunt information materials include a map of wild turkey permit areas, permit quotas and season dates.
Information also is available by calling the DNR Information Center at 651-296-6157 or toll-free -888-646-6367.
A total of 5,781 permits are available.
No. 2: More fishing.
Living in the heart of the Land of 10,000 Lakes, just 30 minutes from Lake Vermilion in Tower/Cook and about an hour from Grand Rapids area lakes, AND being an outdoors writer, you'd think I'd be on the lake fishing for walleye or crappie everyday.
But alas, over the past decade or so it just hasn't worked out that way.
When I was young and ambitious I was on the water or near the water chasing fish whenever I had a spare moment. When it was raining I was in the outdoors store searching out new and better and shinier lures.
The fishing started to slow down when I got married and after I started having kids it quickly became the first thing on the list I didn't have time for.
For several years I went entire summers without dipping a line but the trend as of late has been me and my dad or a kid or two getting out on the lake once, maybe twice each summer.
Once or twice is really just unacceptable.
There just always seems to be some excuse, of course, or some reason why I can't go or can't get out there.
But not this year. I resolve to fish as much and as often as I can rain or shine.
No. 1: More hunting.
Of the three resolutions we've discussed here, and this one kind of goes hand-in-hand with No. 3, more hunting should be the easiest to keep.
I know it will be easier to keep then No. 2 if for no other reason other than the hunting season coincides with when the kids go back to school so that opens up several hours a day right there.
The only problem I see with maximizing this particular resolution is finding MORE days to go hunting this fall then I had last fall.
As some of you may know, I quit my longtime job as Outdoors Reporter at the Mesabi Daily News last August and that afforded me mucho free time to get out and chase game.
What many of you don't know (although those close to me probably had their suspicions) I quit when I did just so I could hunt each and every day!
Now, whether I'll be working a job other than this blog and website come next September is anyone's guess at this point, but even if I'm just a full-time house husband and outdoors writer, it's still going to be tough to top the fall of 2012.
But it won't be for a lack of trying. That is why we make resolutions, after all, to motivate us to succeed and push ourselves to be the best that we can be.
Hey, a guy's gotta have goals.
See ya in the woods!
In : Outdoors resolutions
Tags: minnesota hunt deer grouse fish walleye "lake vermilion" "grand rapids" winnie crappie muskie september fall "iron range"
A former outdoors writer and reporter for the Mesabi Daily News in Virginia, MN, and the Daily Tribune in Hibbing, MN, Jesse has been in the newspaper business for nearly 20 years. His numerous awards over the past two decades include five first-place awards from the Associated Press; two first-place National Newspaper awards; and a first-place Minnesota Newspaper Association award. He is an avid hunter and angler and enjoys guns and archery.
