Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,
Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
Speaker 1: First Light Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.
Speaker 2: Hey everyone, welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast,
Speaker 2: which is brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,
Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today is all about how you can
Speaker 2: set yourself up for a good year of white tail
Speaker 2: hunting by setting the right goals. Look, I know it's cliche,
Speaker 2: it probably seems kind of stupid, but it's a new
Speaker 2: year and there might be might be a new you
Speaker 2: going forward or not. It's really up to you. The
Speaker 2: thing is, there is a tangible benefit to setting goals.
Speaker 2: This goes for every aspect of life, and it doesn't
Speaker 2: have to be something you get shoved down your throat
Speaker 2: by Instagram influencers or Special Forces operators shaming you for
Speaker 2: not being a total badass every second of your existence.
Speaker 2: It can be a simpler deal. It can be just
Speaker 2: really good for your hunting and for your hunting mental
Speaker 2: health as well. I know you're sick of hearing about
Speaker 2: goal setting, and I get it. I'm not going to
Speaker 2: talk about the usual shit here, because you already know
Speaker 2: you should set goals to lose weight, make more money,
Speaker 2: and climb Mount Everest by the time you're thirty or whatever.
Speaker 2: I think this topic kind of sucks because it's been
Speaker 2: taken over by people who are either wired differently from
Speaker 2: most folks, or have more free time than most folks,
Speaker 2: or have more money than most folks. A lot of
Speaker 2: them have all three. I also think this is a
Speaker 2: topic that can open the door to being a preachy,
Speaker 2: self righteous kind of prick too, and as easy as
Speaker 2: it is for me to fall into that trap, I
Speaker 2: don't want to. I want to talk about realistic hunting
Speaker 2: and realistic goals and how to use them to enjoy
Speaker 2: your time in the White Tail Woods more. Now, goals
Speaker 2: can be great or they can be not so great.
Speaker 2: Might work a job where your company is owned by
Speaker 2: a private equity firm that exists solely to flip companies.
Speaker 2: Their goals are to make the company appear like it's
Speaker 2: a growth machine and that it will be more and
Speaker 2: more profitable over the next several years. If you have
Speaker 2: a lot of equity in that company, or are set
Speaker 2: for some type of big payout when it sells. Those
Speaker 2: goals might seem totally just and wonderful. But if you're
Speaker 2: one of the lower level employees who gets laid off
Speaker 2: to make the bottom line look better, or you're a
Speaker 2: surviving employee who has to do your job and that
Speaker 2: other person's job for no extra pay, the goals over
Speaker 2: your head aren't so great. Maybe your goal at the
Speaker 2: healthcare company you work for is to deny a certain
Speaker 2: amount of claims per day or week or quarter, while
Speaker 2: your customers have the goal to just beat cancer and
Speaker 2: not bankrupt themselves in the process, or maybe just get
Speaker 2: their child in the type of wheelchair that will help
Speaker 2: them be more mobile and live some semblance of a
Speaker 2: normal life. On both sides of that e the people
Speaker 2: have vastly different goals that require vastly different outcomes. This
Speaker 2: is a nuanced thing, and as someone who makes his
Speaker 2: living off of a pursuit that an awful lot of
Speaker 2: people view as a sacred pastime that shouldn't be overly
Speaker 2: corrupted by NonStop commercialization, I get it. Believe me, I
Speaker 2: get it. I think this is a very nuanced topic,
Speaker 2: and I don't want to dwell on all of the
Speaker 2: negative stuff. I want to focus on the positives and
Speaker 2: in that realm. Setting goals for yourself has some real
Speaker 2: tangible psychological benefits for starters. It has been proven that
Speaker 2: setting goals pushes people to be more persistent and to
Speaker 2: focus more. This comes partially from a higher level of
Speaker 2: intrinsic motivation, and motivation is generally always good, my friends.
Speaker 2: Another aspect of setting goals that I think is super
Speaker 2: important is that it has been proven to heighten test enjoyment.
Speaker 2: There are other benefits, but I think this one matters
Speaker 2: the most. In hunting, think about it this way. Maybe
Speaker 2: you own a little property, or you lease a property
Speaker 2: where you have some autonomy, or you hunt Gramma's farm
Speaker 2: and have free rain over the whole thing. A simple
Speaker 2: goal like hm, planting a dozen apple trees in the
Speaker 2: spring is great because if you make that goal, it'll
Speaker 2: motivate you to research trees. That part is more fun
Speaker 2: than it sounds like, because suddenly you realize there's a
Speaker 2: lot to learn about planting in a certain zone versus
Speaker 2: a different one, and which trees will survive your winters
Speaker 2: and which ones won't. You'll learn about the kinds of
Speaker 2: trees that produce the kinds of apples that doer really like,
Speaker 2: or maybe some other trees that produce the kinds of
Speaker 2: crab apples that grouse or turkeys really like. I think
Speaker 2: the secret sauce to a better life is to keep
Speaker 2: learning new stuff and to be interested in things. This
Speaker 2: is an easy way to keep going along that kind
Speaker 2: of path, but it's only just the beginning. You're gonna
Speaker 2: have to find a nursery to tell you the kinds
Speaker 2: of trees that you want for your property. Then you
Speaker 2: have to decide if you need to cage them so
Speaker 2: the bears are deer don't destroy them. All of this
Speaker 2: stuff is just steps toward a goal, but it's so
Speaker 2: much more when the trees come in and you go
Speaker 2: out and you plant them, you can watch your progress
Speaker 2: in real time. I grew up in a farming community,
Speaker 2: and while I drove a few tractors for brief periods
Speaker 2: of time in my younger days, I mostly did grunt
Speaker 2: work on farms, like hanging and cleaning out grain silos.
Speaker 2: The farmers who planted the fields and chisel plowed the
Speaker 2: fields and harvested the crops from the fields. They work
Speaker 2: their asses off, but also many times I heard them
Speaker 2: say that they really enjoyed the process of seeing how
Speaker 2: much progress they can make you during spring or fall
Speaker 2: field work. If you've ever watched someone combine a cornfield,
Speaker 2: you can probably relate to that task. Enjoyment is important,
Speaker 2: and setting the simple goal of adding a dozen apple
Speaker 2: trees to your ground can not only help you kill
Speaker 2: some deer in the future, it can help you enjoy
Speaker 2: the world of deer right now or soon. Anyway, this
Speaker 2: probably seems like forehead slapping, simple stuff, but it's not.
Speaker 2: We often screw up our goals or just don't understand
Speaker 2: what good ones really are. Take the most common goal
Speaker 2: in our space, which is I want to shoot a
Speaker 2: certain size of buck. Maybe it's a number that just
Speaker 2: appeals to you, like I don't know, one hundred and
Speaker 2: thirty or one hundred and forty inches, Or maybe it's
Speaker 2: based on your past success, like well, I shot a
Speaker 2: certain size buck last year and he was my biggest one,
Speaker 2: so I want an even bigger one this year. Look,
Speaker 2: those are great, but what do they really mean? For
Speaker 2: most of us? They mean that we want to hunt
Speaker 2: exactly the same way as we always have and we
Speaker 2: just want a bigger deer to walk down the trail
Speaker 2: than what usually does, and we want to shoot that
Speaker 2: deer and we want to post pictures of it on Facebook.
Speaker 2: But if that goal doesn't really get you to do
Speaker 2: anything different, is it a good one? Maybe? I mean,
Speaker 2: I guess even little changes happen, Like if you're used
Speaker 2: to shooting the first buck that comes down the trail
Speaker 2: and now you're going to pass that deer for a
Speaker 2: bigger one, that's different. It's not a bad thing. But
Speaker 2: if the goal is just to kill a bigger deer
Speaker 2: than usual, but it doesn't prompt any action on your part,
Speaker 2: is it a good goal? I don't think so. I
Speaker 2: think the best deer hunting goals are the ones that
Speaker 2: keep us accountable to some type of task throughout the year,
Speaker 2: and not just something that comes into play the moment
Speaker 2: we sit our butts down in a stand for the
Speaker 2: first time all season. An easy to understand goal here
Speaker 2: that no one will do is to try to kill
Speaker 2: your first dear with a traditional bow. If you've never
Speaker 2: tried that, I can promise you that you'll shoot more
Speaker 2: than you ever have, or you'll regret it a hell
Speaker 2: of a lot by the time the season comes. It's
Speaker 2: a goal that will keep you honest at the range
Speaker 2: in the off season and will push you to focus
Speaker 2: your efforts on earning close shots on deer throughout the season.
Speaker 2: I've only spent two years of over thirty with a
Speaker 2: trad bow in my hand, and I can tell you
Speaker 2: that those years stuck with me in a way that
Speaker 2: just never goes away. That was a goal that kept
Speaker 2: me working towards something, and it was fun, and it
Speaker 2: was frustrating, and it was unbelievably rewarding when it worked out. Now,
Speaker 2: let's take a different goal, something like killing your first
Speaker 2: year on public land. Imagine what that will do for
Speaker 2: you throughout the year. It'll likely get you to winter
Speaker 2: in summer scout more, which is always a good thing. Honestly,
Speaker 2: any reason to scout more is like a cheat code
Speaker 2: to becoming a better deer hunter and also just enjoying
Speaker 2: your time in the woods more. But you also might
Speaker 2: need to learn how to really use I don't know,
Speaker 2: like a mobile tree stand system or a saddle system.
Speaker 2: Maybe it'll get you on X a hell of a
Speaker 2: lot more so that you really figure out that digital
Speaker 2: scouting game. Maybe it'll take you out of state for
Speaker 2: the first time, which will create an opportunity to learn
Speaker 2: a whole bunch of stuff about hunting that you're just
Speaker 2: not going to get by hunting close to home on
Speaker 2: a familiar property. I want to switch gears now and
Speaker 2: try to be a little more realistic, because there's a
Speaker 2: thing that happens this time of year. People set big
Speaker 2: goals and then they don't see them through, and then
Speaker 2: they fall to the wayside, and we just revert to
Speaker 2: our old ways. If you don't believe that, go join
Speaker 2: a gym right now. New Year's deals are all the
Speaker 2: raged to boost gym memberships because they know we are
Speaker 2: all a little heavier than we were when we started
Speaker 2: the holidays, and we are all a little more depressed
Speaker 2: than usual since a lot of us haven't seen the
Speaker 2: sun since December. And really, why would we set up
Speaker 2: most work days so that in the winter we go
Speaker 2: to work in the dark and come home in the dark,
Speaker 2: with the only available hours of daylight sold to some
Speaker 2: company that looks at us purely as a number. But
Speaker 2: that's how it is. So we join a gym and
Speaker 2: decide we are going to finally get sext as hell
Speaker 2: and bring ourselves back to our fighting weights and blah
Speaker 2: blah blah. If you do this and you stick it
Speaker 2: out until about Turkey season, you're definitely going to notice something.
Speaker 2: The crowds really start to thin out by about March.
Speaker 2: The enthusiasm for those big fitness goals and lifestyle changes
Speaker 2: just dies on the vine over time because they are
Speaker 2: difficult goals to achieve and most of us aren't cut
Speaker 2: out for them. Those folks would have been better off
Speaker 2: never ever stepping on a scale and never joining a
Speaker 2: spin class, and instead just setting very realistic goals that
Speaker 2: won't make them dead sexy in a month, but will
Speaker 2: make them feel slightly better about themselves over the course
Speaker 2: of say three or four months. So instead of saying
Speaker 2: I want to lose forty pounds and that's it, it's
Speaker 2: better to say, well, I can only bench press one
Speaker 2: hundred pounds right now, but by March, I want to
Speaker 2: be at one hundred and twenty. That's not a big ask,
Speaker 2: It's doable and is a real measure of progress for
Speaker 2: real people. It's simple, straightforward, and will allow you to
Speaker 2: feel good when you throw extra five pounders on each
Speaker 2: side and eventually a ten pounder on each side. To
Speaker 2: most people, if you told them that goal, they'd look
Speaker 2: at you like you just said you wanted to finally
Speaker 2: kill a spike, because you've only ever shot button bucks
Speaker 2: in your life. But the truth is it's your journey
Speaker 2: and your goal, and if you achieve it, which you
Speaker 2: probably will because it's realistic, then you're going to want
Speaker 2: another goal. What's next one hundred and forty pounds? Great,
Speaker 2: that's going to keep you moving in the right direction.
Speaker 2: This is the thing about goals, too, It's that things
Speaker 2: aren't over when you accomplish them. There's a movement out
Speaker 2: there called FIRE, which stands for financial independence Retire Early.
Speaker 2: It's where usually high earners, but not always, say they
Speaker 2: want to meet some crazy retirement goal at a young age,
Speaker 2: and they scrimp and save and they sacrifice and they
Speaker 2: obsess over investing to meet that goal. But a lot
Speaker 2: of the folks who suddenly find themselves there at that
Speaker 2: finish line realize that they are sort of loss being
Speaker 2: able to retire at thirty five with a couple million
Speaker 2: dollars in the bank. The goal itself was the end
Speaker 2: of the quest, but life doesn't end. Then we're not
Speaker 2: living in a movie or a video game, so you
Speaker 2: have to ask yourself what's next, and they struggle with
Speaker 2: that since that whole idea was such a big part
Speaker 2: of their existence. This is why I like goals like
Speaker 2: I'm gonna plant twelve new apple trees on my land
Speaker 2: this spring, because inevitably you'll realize that you're gonna want
Speaker 2: to hunt those apple trees, or maybe while you're out
Speaker 2: there planting them, you realize that a little kill plot
Speaker 2: on the corner of your land would be great for
Speaker 2: when we get a random south or east wind during
Speaker 2: late October or throughout the rut. There's next year's goal
Speaker 2: right there. Or maybe it's something slightly different, like cleaning
Speaker 2: out the shooting lanes for your rifle hunts at deer
Speaker 2: Camp up norm or maybe just fixing the window on
Speaker 2: the shack that always lets the mosquitos in whatever find
Speaker 2: something to work toward, and then write those goals down.
Speaker 2: I know that sounds dumb, and if you told me
Speaker 2: to do it ten years ago, I would have told
Speaker 2: you to go kick rocks in the street. But I'm
Speaker 2: older now and maybe it's just my bad memory from
Speaker 2: so many years of pickling my brain with whiskey and
Speaker 2: poor decisions. But when I write something down, it's just
Speaker 2: harder for me to ignore. I do this every Monday.
Speaker 2: When I sit at my stupid desk and I think
Speaker 2: about the stupid work I have to do for the week,
Speaker 2: I also write down all of the stupid life stuff
Speaker 2: I have to do, like renew my license tabs, or
Speaker 2: get new tires for my truck, or get the sled
Speaker 2: out of the backyard pond that the old blonde buzzkill
Speaker 2: has been bitching about for months. When things are written down,
Speaker 2: they hold us accountable. That's important. And maybe you're thinking, well,
Speaker 2: what do I do, Grab a notepad and pen and
Speaker 2: write shoot one one hundred and fifty inch buck and
Speaker 2: then I wait eleven months to hopefully cross it off. Nope,
Speaker 2: that would be dumb, and I'm a little offended you
Speaker 2: even asked. Instead, think about what you could do this
Speaker 2: month that would help you achieve that goal. Is it
Speaker 2: clearing out your entrance and exit trails? Great, write that down.
Speaker 2: Is it scouting the river bottom on the public land
Speaker 2: you really like to hunt, but in a way where
Speaker 2: it takes you to a few of the areas you
Speaker 2: don't really go, but you suspect big Bucks might use
Speaker 2: great write that down. Maybe you fall apart at the
Speaker 2: shot because you're not confident enough in your shooting. Fine,
Speaker 2: how many eras a week do you need to shoot
Speaker 2: to be better this year than you were last year.
Speaker 2: Write down a weekly goal, then hit that goal. I
Speaker 2: know this sounds dumb, but the thing about being a
Speaker 2: successful hunter who really enjoys the whole process is well
Speaker 2: engaging in the whole process with some gusto. I know
Speaker 2: I say this all the time, but it's because I
Speaker 2: believe it. A guy like A and D May could
Speaker 2: explain to you exactly how he kills big Bucks with
Speaker 2: scary consistency, But that's not going to make you a
Speaker 2: whole lot better as a hunter. That's on you. Now,
Speaker 2: if you scouted with the same discipline as him, we're
Speaker 2: talking about something different. That action matters, and it's how
Speaker 2: you find big deer and eventually kill some of them. Now,
Speaker 2: if you were as concerned with a perfectly tuned bow
Speaker 2: and arrows and accuracy as him, and you went through
Speaker 2: the steps to get there, you'd be a better hunter
Speaker 2: who had more fun out in the field. We are
Speaker 2: obsessed with trying to shortcut the process, because the process
Speaker 2: is hard, but the reality is that the process is
Speaker 2: what makes it so damn fun and rewarding the process
Speaker 2: is a big thing, and setting a goal around just
Speaker 2: killing a good deer doesn't acknowledge that fact, and it
Speaker 2: has to be acknowledged. One of the best ways to
Speaker 2: do that is to start to just piece it out
Speaker 2: so that you look at what you want to get
Speaker 2: out of hunting this year, and you take those pieces
Speaker 2: that are there, and you look at the ones you
Speaker 2: could work on to make that goal happen. It has
Speaker 2: to be about taking what you currently do and trying
Speaker 2: to make parts of that a little better, or finding
Speaker 2: something that's just a little offshoot to what you currently
Speaker 2: do and working on that. That's kind of really it.
Speaker 2: You don't need huge overarching goals because they don't really
Speaker 2: stick anyway. A goal to win or scout for a
Speaker 2: few hours each week or every other week is probably
Speaker 2: more impactful to most of us than deciding it's booner
Speaker 2: or bust this year. And that's it. So what are
Speaker 2: your goals going to be? I'll give you a few
Speaker 2: of mine. This winter, I'm going to expand a little
Speaker 2: kill plot on my Wisconsin ground so that I can
Speaker 2: hunt more wind directions with my daughters because we have
Speaker 2: limited time to hunt together, and often when we do
Speaker 2: have time, the wind doesn't blow just from the north
Speaker 2: or west. I'm also going to hunt a new state
Speaker 2: this year. I don't know which one yet, but I
Speaker 2: just want to see some new ground and keep getting
Speaker 2: in on this non resident thing before it's too late.
Speaker 2: I haven't decided for sure yet either, but I do
Speaker 2: want to try to take my dog on a real
Speaker 2: hunting trip somewhere for something. Might be turkeys, might be antelope,
Speaker 2: but it will be something. That's what I have so far.
Speaker 2: I'm sure there'll be more, and I haven't broken those
Speaker 2: goals down yet, but I'm going to. So think about
Speaker 2: your goals, think about ways to keep yourself out there
Speaker 2: and doing your thing in the woods. Make it real
Speaker 2: by writing it down, and come back next week because
Speaker 2: I'm going to talk about how unfair life is, but
Speaker 2: that shouldn't matter to us as deer hunters. That's it
Speaker 2: for this week. I'm Tony Peterson. This has been the
Speaker 2: Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which is brought to you
Speaker 2: by First Light. As always, thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 2: For all your support. If you want more white tail
Speaker 2: content or just hunting content in general, head on over
Speaker 2: to the mediator dot com. Tons of podcasts, tons of videos, articles, recipes,
Speaker 2: you name it, you can find it there. Go check
Speaker 2: it out at the mediator dot com