Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Podcast, your guide to
Speaker 1: the Whitetail Woods, presented by First Light, creating proven versatile
Speaker 1: hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light,
Speaker 1: Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. This week on
Speaker 2: the show, we're going to discuss exactly how and why
Speaker 2: you can perform an end of year review as we
Speaker 2: wrap up this most recent hunting season. All right, welcome
Speaker 2: to the Wired to Hunt Podcast, brought to you by
Speaker 2: First Light and their Camo excuse me not commo, their
Speaker 2: Camo for Conservation initiative, in which they donate a portion
Speaker 2: of all proceeds from sales of their spector Whitetail cameo
Speaker 2: pattern back to the National Deer Association, which I love.
Speaker 2: And today is our first episode of the new year.
Speaker 2: It is twenty twenty four now, which is pretty wild,
Speaker 2: and today I want to do something pretty different. There's
Speaker 2: no guests today, just me, me and you talking about
Speaker 2: this past hunting season and the hunting season to come.
Speaker 2: What I want to do is I want to walk
Speaker 2: you through an end of year review. This is actually
Speaker 2: something that I do myself every year, both you know,
Speaker 2: hunting related and just general life, work, personal, all that
Speaker 2: kind of stuff. And so what I want to do
Speaker 2: is talk you through why I do that, you know,
Speaker 2: what is an end of your review, Why I find
Speaker 2: it valuable, why this could be applicable to our hunting lives,
Speaker 2: and how it can actually help us as deer hunters
Speaker 2: and outdoors men and women, And to help you kind
Speaker 2: of understand what I'm talking about here and to understand
Speaker 2: how to do it yourself if you're interested. I want
Speaker 2: to walk through my own end of year review for
Speaker 2: my hunting side of things. So I want to talk
Speaker 2: through how I do it. I want to talk through
Speaker 2: the things I'm thinking about, and I want to share
Speaker 2: with you the way I'm processing this most recent hunting season,
Speaker 2: which was the twenty three season. It just came to
Speaker 2: a close for me yesterday. Actually yesterday was my very
Speaker 2: last hunt of the year. It was a great one.
Speaker 2: I'm going to share that story with you, as well
Speaker 2: as a whole bunch of other stories that I haven't
Speaker 2: shared yet on the podcast, because here's the thing. The
Speaker 2: headline of my twenty three season is that I just
Speaker 2: completed the best hunting season of my life. Now, it's
Speaker 2: not that I killed the most deer of my life.
Speaker 2: It's not that I killed the biggest dear of my life.
Speaker 2: But when you look at the entirety of this season,
Speaker 2: what it meant to me, the experiences I had, the
Speaker 2: memories I made, the people I shared it with, without
Speaker 2: a doubt, it's the best ever. So I want to
Speaker 2: talk you through that, but also talk through the things
Speaker 2: that didn't go well, talk through the mistakes. I may,
Speaker 2: talk through some lessons I learned, talk through some things
Speaker 2: I want to change, and lots more along the way.
Speaker 2: So that is the game plan for today. Again, We're
Speaker 2: going to talk through what the end of your review is,
Speaker 2: why it's important, and then use my specific example to
Speaker 2: explain how you can do it yourself. So my recommendation
Speaker 2: for you, my thoughts, my hope, so that you know,
Speaker 2: after listening to this conversation, it's a one set of conversation,
Speaker 2: I guess, but after listening to this you might be
Speaker 2: able to take half hour, an hour, however much time
Speaker 2: you want and sit down with a pen and paper
Speaker 2: or with your computer up or whatever it is, and
Speaker 2: do something like this yourself, Because I really do think
Speaker 2: it will help now real quick, before we do that,
Speaker 2: I do want to share one quick little piece of news.
Speaker 2: It's exciting we finally have wired to Hunt hats again.
Speaker 2: Now you might have seen the meat Eater white tail
Speaker 2: hat that I've been wearing for the last two years.
Speaker 2: Just this past summer, I think it was that finally
Speaker 2: became available. It's that rope pat black with the deer
Speaker 2: across the front. If you're watching this on YouTube, you
Speaker 2: can actually see we've now got a Wired Hunt version
Speaker 2: of that. So if you're watching, you can see I've
Speaker 2: got the deer on the front and then it says
Speaker 2: wired to Hunt here on the side now and it's
Speaker 2: available in two unique colors. You can't get in the
Speaker 2: regular Meat Eater white tail hat that originally launched, so
Speaker 2: we've got a new gray with orange text and then
Speaker 2: a tan color as well, so they'll both work in
Speaker 2: the field hunting, and it's a great way to support
Speaker 2: Wired to Hunt and show that's you're part of this community,
Speaker 2: which I really appreciate. And you know, if we sell
Speaker 2: these hats, maybe they'll let me stick around for a
Speaker 2: while longer at meat Eater and keep doing these podcasts.
Speaker 2: So thank you for picking up a hat. If you're interested,
Speaker 2: you can go to the meat Eater store, which is
Speaker 2: just you know, go to the meat eater dot com.
Speaker 2: You'll see the links for the store and navigate your
Speaker 2: way to the apparel or logo where and you'll find
Speaker 2: the hats there. So pretty cool, excited about that. Just
Speaker 2: want to give you a heads up that all said,
Speaker 2: let's talk end of the year review, and I'm going
Speaker 2: to be drink It has been coffee as we do this,
Speaker 2: because you know, when it's just you and me, there's
Speaker 2: no guest on the line that I need to be
Speaker 2: sitting back and listening to, so I need to take
Speaker 2: the occasional drink break or air brake as we go along.
Speaker 2: So you know, as I record this, it's January TEWOD
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, and what my wife and I did
Speaker 2: yesterday was a joint end of the review where we
Speaker 2: sit down and we talk about all the things that
Speaker 2: happened last year. We talked through the things that we
Speaker 2: think went well. We talked to the things that we
Speaker 2: thought didn't go so well. We talked through some of
Speaker 2: our highlights. We talked through kind of review our goals
Speaker 2: from last year, talk through what we achieve, but we didn't,
Speaker 2: and then we do the same thing looking forward. And
Speaker 2: I think that this does a few things for me
Speaker 2: number one, and this is this is me making the
Speaker 2: case to you for why I might suggest you consider
Speaker 2: doing something similar. And this applies not just to life
Speaker 2: but hunting. I think that when you do a review
Speaker 2: like this, when you look back on that past twelve
Speaker 2: months or the last three months of hunting, whatever it is,
Speaker 2: I think it helps you fully soak it in. I
Speaker 2: think life is so crazy, it's so busy. I don't
Speaker 2: know if this is how you feel, but it just
Speaker 2: feels like it is a constant blur. It's like you're
Speaker 2: on a roller coaster and you're going and you're going
Speaker 2: and you're going, and there's no time to look back.
Speaker 2: There's no time to think back on that vacation you had,
Speaker 2: or that trip you had, or that amazing hunt two
Speaker 2: months ago, because you're worrying about today. You're worrying about
Speaker 2: tomorrow or next week, or this deadline of that project,
Speaker 2: or this daycare drop off or school extracurricular activity, whatever
Speaker 2: it is. There's so much going on that life can
Speaker 2: just fly by and you'll hardly even know that it happened.
Speaker 2: And so by doing this end of year review, I
Speaker 2: have really found that it almost lets me re experience
Speaker 2: the past year or highlights of that and actually have
Speaker 2: them kind of sink in in some kind of way.
Speaker 2: I think it helps you appreciate so much more of
Speaker 2: what happened. If you don't take time to really reflect
Speaker 2: on the things that happen, especially the good things that happen,
Speaker 2: it's very easy not to truly appreciate that the great
Speaker 2: opportunities we've had, the great experiences we've had, the memories
Speaker 2: we've had. You know something I did, which I would
Speaker 2: recommend you do too, is I actually went and I
Speaker 2: mirrored my phone up to the TV and pulled up
Speaker 2: the photos at and look through my entire photo album
Speaker 2: from the last year. And it's such a great way
Speaker 2: just to again relive what happened and just remember, like
Speaker 2: there's all these little things that happen on day to
Speaker 2: day hunts that in the moment, maybe you snap a
Speaker 2: quick picture of, but you never end up going and
Speaker 2: seeking those photos out again, and you might never see
Speaker 2: them again. If you make time to do this little review,
Speaker 2: pull up your photo up and go back and look
Speaker 2: at all these things, and you're going to remember, oh, man,
Speaker 2: you know, I saw that raccoon climb up the tree
Speaker 2: and look at me right in the eyeball some two
Speaker 2: feet away. Or I remember that morning when my son
Speaker 2: was so excited to go hunting and he spilled hot
Speaker 2: chocolate everywhere, and whatever it is, Right, there's all these
Speaker 2: little things that happen in life that are pretty darn
Speaker 2: special if we give him a moment to really sink in.
Speaker 2: I suppose so by doing this end of year review,
Speaker 2: it gives yourself a chance for those types of moments,
Speaker 2: for that opportunity to be thankful for everything that happened,
Speaker 2: to truly feel a sense of gratitude for all of
Speaker 2: those hunts, you know, the early mornings when they're actually
Speaker 2: happening during the rut. At least for me, a lot
Speaker 2: of those early mornings, I'm kind of like, I don't
Speaker 2: want to do this. But when I look back on
Speaker 2: him and I remember all the different things that happen
Speaker 2: on all those different days, man, it puts a huge
Speaker 2: smile on my face. But the only way that happens
Speaker 2: is if I take the time now to look back
Speaker 2: on it and relive those things. So this end of
Speaker 2: year review gives you a chance to do that. I
Speaker 2: posted I don't know when this was no past year.
Speaker 2: I posted a little thing on Instagram about how you know,
Speaker 2: I've been so guilty over the years of every time
Speaker 2: I kill a deer, especially a buck, it just seems
Speaker 2: like it's an absolute blur of things that have to
Speaker 2: get done right. I gotta go, you know, get whatever
Speaker 2: I need to go track the deer, and then I've
Speaker 2: got friends coming, or a camera guy coming, or family coming,
Speaker 2: someone's gonna come be on the track job. And then
Speaker 2: you're trying to find the deer and you can't really
Speaker 2: enjoy anything because you're so stressed. And then you finally
Speaker 2: find the deer, and once you find it, then it's like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I gotta tag and I gotta gut it, we gotta
Speaker 2: move it, we gotta take pictures, and we gotta get
Speaker 2: it home. And then I gotta, you know, cut it
Speaker 2: up or get it on ice, or bring it to
Speaker 2: the process or drop it off for the tax dermist.
Speaker 2: And there's a million things that I'm trying to do,
Speaker 2: and I have in the past not done a good
Speaker 2: job of slowing down and just cherishing it. Just relishing
Speaker 2: in that moment because you put in so much time,
Speaker 2: so much energy, stress and hope and anxiety and excitement
Speaker 2: and nerves and so so so much of you goes
Speaker 2: into these hunts. Right, how many of you have killed
Speaker 2: that buck or achieved that goal, whatever it was, and
Speaker 2: then you blink and it's all gone, and you're laying
Speaker 2: in bed and you thought, what just happened? This is
Speaker 2: an opportunity to go back and try to relive those
Speaker 2: Hopefully you've got some pictures or hopefully you've got some
Speaker 2: memories in your mind that you can just take a
Speaker 2: second and close your eyes and just live it again,
Speaker 2: think it through again. That is so valuable. It's so valuable.
Speaker 2: It's not just valuable in the way that you can
Speaker 2: enjoy those experiences again, but a big part of this
Speaker 2: end of your review is the opportunity to learn from
Speaker 2: these experiences, to learn from the past hunting season. Because, right,
Speaker 2: if there's anything we've talked about on the Wired Hunt
Speaker 2: podcast over the last ten plus years, it's the fact
Speaker 2: that you always need to keep learning, always keep growing,
Speaker 2: always ask why, always take that next step. No matter
Speaker 2: where you are on this journey, there's all another step
Speaker 2: you can take. There's always another lesson you can learn.
Speaker 2: And when we're going through the season, it's like I said,
Speaker 2: it's a train, and it's really hard to hop off
Speaker 2: that train. It's really hard to stop that train and
Speaker 2: take a breath. Now's the chance, Now's the chance to
Speaker 2: think through what went right and what can we learn
Speaker 2: from it? What went wrong? And what can I learn
Speaker 2: from it? What do I just kind of feel about?
Speaker 2: Why is that? Why do I feel this way? What's
Speaker 2: my general sense after the hunting season? Do I feel satisfied?
Speaker 2: Am I exhausted? Am I rare to go again? Am
Speaker 2: I pumped up about what just happened? And I can't
Speaker 2: wait for the next season. I'm ready to get to
Speaker 2: work right now. Or maybe on the flip side, maybe
Speaker 2: I'm kind of burnout and I'm not happy about things.
Speaker 2: Maybe I've lost the fun. What does that mean? What
Speaker 2: do you take from that? This is the opportunity to
Speaker 2: start working through those things rather than just blindly going
Speaker 2: into the new year and just moving on to the
Speaker 2: next thing on your list and going on with life.
Speaker 2: Then all this sun July or August or September comes around,
Speaker 2: no new hunting seasons? About here, I better start getting ready.
Speaker 2: I better start thinking about it. I better start planning
Speaker 2: for It's so much better to do that thinking, to
Speaker 2: do that unpacking mentally, to do that reflection now, so
Speaker 2: you can start putting a plan in place for what
Speaker 2: you want to do differently or the same coming into
Speaker 2: that next season. So that is something that I think
Speaker 2: can truly that only help you, you know, enjoy hunting more,
Speaker 2: but also help you become a more effective hunter in
Speaker 2: whatever way it is that you're trying to do that.
Speaker 2: I think this end of your review is just as
Speaker 2: important for someone who is a brand new deer hunter
Speaker 2: as it is for someone who is an absolute killer
Speaker 2: who's been doing this for decades and is one of
Speaker 2: the best out there. This is something that can help
Speaker 2: ever one of us. So that is my pitch. That
Speaker 2: is why I think this whole thing's valuable. That's why
Speaker 2: I think that there's cause to take a moment here
Speaker 2: at the beginning of the new year and not talk tactics,
Speaker 2: not talk strategies, not hear another big Bucks story. It's
Speaker 2: worth pausing, and that's I think what this is about.
Speaker 2: This is about a pause, This is about a breath,
Speaker 2: and this is about actually thinking things through. So here's
Speaker 2: an outline, a breakdown of how I do this myself.
Speaker 2: And so I'm going to use my own season as
Speaker 2: an example. So I'm going to talk through some of
Speaker 2: these things that happen for me, and you can just
Speaker 2: kind of, you know, follow along, learn from my experiences.
Speaker 2: But then also, you know, maybe write down some of
Speaker 2: your own thoughts as you go along. Maybe you know,
Speaker 2: insert your own big wins or misses along the way,
Speaker 2: or take time later and do this yourself without me
Speaker 2: John along the way. So when I'm doing this end
Speaker 2: of your review, a couple of things I would recommend.
Speaker 2: Number one, I would recommend writing stuff down. Don't just
Speaker 2: sit and think about this. I really would suggest getting
Speaker 2: a pen and paper, or pulling up your computer and
Speaker 2: open up a word document or your notes app on
Speaker 2: your phone, whatever it is that you want to use
Speaker 2: physically getting something down, moving your fingers in some kind
Speaker 2: of way. Putting this down in writing is not only
Speaker 2: valuable in that you can go back and look at
Speaker 2: it later, but I also, and this is a an opinion,
Speaker 2: this is actually science backed fact that writing things down
Speaker 2: more tangibly and concretely lacks things into your psychee. It
Speaker 2: makes things stick in your mind more so. Actually, you know,
Speaker 2: when it comes like taking notes or like trying to
Speaker 2: learn things, most people actually retain information better. It becomes
Speaker 2: more a part of them when they write it down.
Speaker 2: So we're going to do that with this End every
Speaker 2: Year review. I already gave you another one of my tips,
Speaker 2: which is pull up your photo album and start looking
Speaker 2: through pictures. So the first thing you might want to do,
Speaker 2: like I said, pull up your photos if you or
Speaker 2: one of those people that takes a lot of photos.
Speaker 2: If not, close your eyes and start thinking back on
Speaker 2: this past year. Think through those first days maybe leading
Speaker 2: into the season. Think think about the work you did
Speaker 2: leading into the hunting season. First, let's do that. Let's
Speaker 2: close our eyes or look at our photo album and
Speaker 2: think about that spring. Think about shed hunting, Think about
Speaker 2: the scouting you did, and not just generally, I mean
Speaker 2: think about some specific instances. Just start writing things down.
Speaker 2: This is a great exercise. Just start writing down a
Speaker 2: little highlight memories. Write down you know, okay, I remember
Speaker 2: that time that Peter found that big shed, or the
Speaker 2: time that I, you know, tripped when I was going
Speaker 2: across the creek, and fell out of my face, or
Speaker 2: right about the time when your kids came out with
Speaker 2: you to help frost seeding, whatever it is, write down
Speaker 2: the things that stand out in your memory. Right, So,
Speaker 2: as we go through the scouting season and the shed
Speaker 2: hunting season, then we get into you know, if you've
Speaker 2: got private land, maybe we're talking food plot season, you're
Speaker 2: hanging stands, maybe you're out there scouting beanfields. Think through
Speaker 2: all those moments. Write down some of those highlights. Write
Speaker 2: down those moments you appreciate the most. Write down those
Speaker 2: moments that bring a smile to your face. Just write
Speaker 2: down a quick little line here. I mean, there's so
Speaker 2: many things I can talk about. There's the shed hunting
Speaker 2: trip to Iowa with my buddies. There are the projects
Speaker 2: that my two boys give me this spring when we
Speaker 2: started preparing food plots, there was without a doubt coming
Speaker 2: and starting our summer glassing and getting out there in
Speaker 2: Michigan and seeing my target buck for the first time.
Speaker 2: Just an incredible bean field night out there. It was
Speaker 2: early August and I slipped into the edge of a
Speaker 2: standing cornfield in the soybean fields, right in the edge
Speaker 2: of this bedding that I knew the WY nine was
Speaker 2: living in historically, and there's been a little bit of
Speaker 2: a summer cold front, and I just remember thinking, like,
Speaker 2: if ever I'm going to see it, this should be
Speaker 2: the night. And here comes a little spike and then
Speaker 2: here comes a nice like two year old a pointer,
Speaker 2: and then here comes like a nice three year old
Speaker 2: and then boom he is And it was just like
Speaker 2: in a movie when the star character like Superhero merges
Speaker 2: for the first time and that music like wells up.
Speaker 2: It was like that kind of moment. It was so
Speaker 2: exciting to finally see him in person, to know he
Speaker 2: was back. I mean, that memory kind of gives me
Speaker 2: goosebumps right now just thinking about it. What's yours? What
Speaker 2: are some of those moments for you leading into the season,
Speaker 2: and then as the season arrives, think back on that
Speaker 2: first year hunt of the year, think back to that
Speaker 2: first really close call, think back on that first do
Speaker 2: you took a shot at or the first year you
Speaker 2: got a shot out of this year or whatever it is.
Speaker 2: Think through the season and start writing down those highlights.
Speaker 2: So that's our starting point. We're going to just write
Speaker 2: down what are the things that stand out in our memory.
Speaker 2: Let's look through our photo album and smile and appreciate
Speaker 2: each one of those different moments as we go through,
Speaker 2: and we're probably gonna be reminded of a bunch of
Speaker 2: things we actually forgot about, because again, like I mentioned,
Speaker 2: so much of this just just flies by. So that's
Speaker 2: step one. Just remember and kind of simmer in the
Speaker 2: experience that we just had. Okay, that's step number one.
Speaker 2: Step number two is we're going to write down a
Speaker 2: list of our big wins. Whatever you think happened last
Speaker 2: year that you would categorize as something that went well,
Speaker 2: whether it's a big goal you accomplished, or if it's
Speaker 2: just one of these things that gave you a big smile,
Speaker 2: if it was one of your favorite things that happened
Speaker 2: last season, if it's something that you think you did
Speaker 2: very well, whether it be a choice or something that
Speaker 2: you're working towards, or maybe just got lucky, but it
Speaker 2: was a heck of an experience. Let's write down some
Speaker 2: of those favorite things from last season. I think this again,
Speaker 2: there's a couple things for us. Number one, we get
Speaker 2: to experience. At number two, I really want to encourage
Speaker 2: you to kind of wrap yourself up in gratitude for
Speaker 2: these moments, right, because again, we do this thing because
Speaker 2: we love it, because it's fun, because it's fulfilling, because
Speaker 2: it's it's life like something. It kind of, at least
Speaker 2: for me, it fills me with life, and this is
Speaker 2: an opportunity to again appreciate that. And so for me,
Speaker 2: I'm thinking through things like, you know, the Working for
Speaker 2: Wildlife tour that I got to go on this year,
Speaker 2: and I'm not directly tied to my deer hunting season necessarily,
Speaker 2: but that was something that happened throughout the season. Getting
Speaker 2: to meet so many different hunters and anglers, getting to
Speaker 2: work on all those different pieces of public land that
Speaker 2: just gave me so much joy and satisfaction. Getting to
Speaker 2: you know, clean up a wildlife refuge or plant trees
Speaker 2: or remove invasive species, whatever. It was. Just getting to
Speaker 2: be in the outdoors with other people that cared about
Speaker 2: it and doing something that gives back. That was something
Speaker 2: that that's a big win for me. It gave me
Speaker 2: a lot of energy and excitement this year. Let's keep
Speaker 2: on moving down the list, Let's go through the season.
Speaker 2: Let's let's talk through some of the things that made
Speaker 2: this my best hunting season ever. You know that first
Speaker 2: trip of the year, I went to Minnesota and Wisconsin,
Speaker 2: and this trip epitomized the new way I want to
Speaker 2: approach my hunting seasons, which is not single mindedly obsessed
Speaker 2: with having to kill a certain number of deer or
Speaker 2: a certain age deer or a certain size deer. Again,
Speaker 2: I have goals, but I want to get better at
Speaker 2: appreciating the whole picture and getting back to fun. Right.
Speaker 2: That's something that I've been talking about the last two years,
Speaker 2: and this year I wanted to, you know, continue to
Speaker 2: walk down that path. And so with this Wisconsin Minnesota trip,
Speaker 2: I decided to plan this trip in a way that
Speaker 2: was different than many of my other trips. And so,
Speaker 2: you know, step number one of doing that was, Hey,
Speaker 2: I'm not just gonna go target deer. I'm going to
Speaker 2: do some other things I enjoy. Because every deer hunting
Speaker 2: trip doesn't have to be just a single minded military
Speaker 2: mission put a tag on a deer. You can actually
Speaker 2: do some other things too. That might sound obvious to
Speaker 2: some of you, but to me it was kind of
Speaker 2: an epiphany. So, man, when I did that, it paid
Speaker 2: off in a big way because I planned to go
Speaker 2: up to a place that I love. A beautiful, really
Speaker 2: special place, the Boundary waters of northern Minnesota, and I
Speaker 2: got to go up there spend time with a couple buddies.
Speaker 2: I got to fish on some absolutely beautiful lakes, so
Speaker 2: I got to do one of the things I love,
Speaker 2: which is fly fish. I got to camp on the
Speaker 2: edge of this just perfectly pristine wilderness lake. We fried
Speaker 2: up fish tacos right on the edge of the water,
Speaker 2: cook them over and open campfire. We cook backstrap. Another night,
Speaker 2: we were hearing LUN's calling, We're wolves howling. Just an
Speaker 2: amazing start to the hunting season. And then from there
Speaker 2: slide on down a couple hours to Wisconsin to meet
Speaker 2: up with another good friend of mine. I got to
Speaker 2: spend some really quality of time with my friend, Doug Duran.
Speaker 2: He was gracious enough to help me have access to
Speaker 2: a neighboring farm. We talked about this on a past podcast.
Speaker 2: But I had a great hunt down there. I was
Speaker 2: able to kill a dough and then also kill a really,
Speaker 2: really nice buck, and it was successful from a hunting perspective.
Speaker 2: What stands out when I sit here and think about
Speaker 2: that hunt was really the conversations that I got to
Speaker 2: have with dog. We had a bunch of car rights.
Speaker 2: We drove just kind of all over the place a
Speaker 2: couple of different trips. We drove to the Vortex's headquarters,
Speaker 2: and we drove to the Taxidermis, and we drove to
Speaker 2: a friend of his and we drove all over his property,
Speaker 2: his farm and all that. Just like Windshield time with
Speaker 2: Doug was a blast, getting to debate him about you know,
Speaker 2: anything and everything, Debating about food plus, debating about deer hunting,
Speaker 2: debating about how to deal with CWD, debating bow hunting
Speaker 2: versus gun hunting, and like fun debates with someone who
Speaker 2: you know is thoughtful and cares about you but also
Speaker 2: has different perspectives. I love that and that is something
Speaker 2: I could look back with a lot of fondness, and
Speaker 2: that made that trip a big win. So thinking about
Speaker 2: highlights like that or moving on the season, you know.
Speaker 2: The first trip or first kind of big thing in
Speaker 2: Michigan was this back forty hunt that we filmed with
Speaker 2: two of the new hunters who I first mentored out
Speaker 2: there a couple of years ago, Evanon Forrest, and it
Speaker 2: got to spend four days with them out there kind
Speaker 2: of talking through their journey, talking through what's been going
Speaker 2: on on the Back forty property since we donated to
Speaker 2: the National Deer Association, since they started their field to
Speaker 2: fork program out there, and man, looking back on that huge,
Speaker 2: huge win. We didn't kill a deer on that particular trip,
Speaker 2: but seeing how their journey has progressed has been a
Speaker 2: win in itself. They've now become diehard hunters. I was
Speaker 2: with both of them on their first deer kill three
Speaker 2: years ago. I guess it is and now they love
Speaker 2: deer hunting. They're fully consumed with it. I continue to
Speaker 2: stay in touch with them. I've had them out to
Speaker 2: hunt on some of my other places since then. We've
Speaker 2: shared a lot of great memories. I got to be
Speaker 2: a part of several other new hunter events out there
Speaker 2: this year, including getting the mentor another new hunter to
Speaker 2: one of his first deer out there on the Back forty,
Speaker 2: So that whole thing, big, big win, you know. Another
Speaker 2: huge highlight of my twenty twenty three season was the
Speaker 2: extra time I got to spend at our family deer camp,
Speaker 2: Ken Roband. Some of you have probably heard me talk
Speaker 2: about it, and in this year I wanted to find
Speaker 2: a way to spend more time up there. And document
Speaker 2: what we've been trying to do, which in a very
Speaker 2: short version, is that we've been trying to revitalize the
Speaker 2: camp up there and then help make the hunting better again.
Speaker 2: And so we started some pretty significant projects this past spring.
Speaker 2: We put expanded food plots in, We did some significant
Speaker 2: cutting to add new structure and cover into some of
Speaker 2: the old mature timber. We fixed up all sorts of
Speaker 2: new blind blinds that would be good hunting locations for
Speaker 2: my dad who has some specific needs, put up more
Speaker 2: cameras than ever before, and it kind of came out
Speaker 2: of all that work was then some really special trips.
Speaker 2: We did the longest trip I've done up there that
Speaker 2: I can remember. We had five fold days I think
Speaker 2: six five six days, five nights, something like that, but
Speaker 2: a long time up at camp with my dad, with
Speaker 2: my buddy Josh, my friend Charlie. A great trip there
Speaker 2: in October, and then we came back in November with
Speaker 2: the kids and had our first true family deer camp
Speaker 2: with all the boys. So Everett, my five year old,
Speaker 2: has been to deer camp before, but this past season
Speaker 2: my three year old Colt got to come for the
Speaker 2: first time. And then Josh's son Wade, who's four, got
Speaker 2: to come for the first time. So we had a
Speaker 2: five year old to four year old and a three
Speaker 2: year old up at deer Camp with us, and you know,
Speaker 2: that was really special to get to share this place
Speaker 2: with the fourth generation of hunters now at our family
Speaker 2: deer camp. So we had a lot of great memories
Speaker 2: during that long weekend. And that's that's, without a doubt,
Speaker 2: a big, big part of what made this season so special.
Speaker 2: And then, you know, I think that ties back to
Speaker 2: another one of these things that I've been trying to
Speaker 2: focus on this general themes, which is, you know, a
Speaker 2: big part of why these last couple of seasons I
Speaker 2: think have been a lot better for me, which is
Speaker 2: going back to prioritizing those things that actually matter, not
Speaker 2: being too worked up about how many dearI kill, how
Speaker 2: big a deer, all that kind of stuff that relates
Speaker 2: to like the outside world or what other people think
Speaker 2: about your success, getting tied up in inches or antlers
Speaker 2: or anything like that, which it's easy to do because
Speaker 2: we love deer hunting. We love deer. They get us
Speaker 2: geeked out. But prioritizing family and friends, time with the
Speaker 2: people you care about sharing the outdoors and sharing our
Speaker 2: hunts and our experiences with other people. It's easy to
Speaker 2: lose sight of that when you're just chasing big bucks.
Speaker 2: My one of my absolute biggest lessons over the last
Speaker 2: couple of years is what a mistake that is. And
Speaker 2: this year at our deer camp, going up to Ken Rovan,
Speaker 2: spending extra time with my dad, my kids, pals. That's
Speaker 2: that's what hunting is all about. That's what got me
Speaker 2: into it in the first place. And I'm so so
Speaker 2: glad I was able to, you know, continue that tradition
Speaker 2: now with my two sons. So without a doubt, twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three man, huge, huge year when it comes to
Speaker 2: Ken Roven and spending time with the boys, and that
Speaker 2: continues on. That did continue on throughout the season because
Speaker 2: after our family deer camp and once it kind of
Speaker 2: became time to really focus on dough hunting, I was
Speaker 2: able to get my kids out some more with me.
Speaker 2: And two very exciting things happened recently, well, several exciting
Speaker 2: things happen. One I already mentioned I got to mentor
Speaker 2: another new hunter to a deer on the back forty
Speaker 2: a few weeks ago, and then I had another dough
Speaker 2: hunting night with a buddy, Josh on different property. We
Speaker 2: both killed those in the same night. That's the first
Speaker 2: time we've ever doubled together. And he's my best hunting buddy.
Speaker 2: We spent a lot of days hunting together, but this
Speaker 2: was the first time we both killed a deer in
Speaker 2: the same hunt, So that was a really fun night
Speaker 2: to share. A few a week or two later, I
Speaker 2: invited him out to one of the farms I hunt,
Speaker 2: another one of the farms I hunt, and he was
Speaker 2: actually able to kill another dough and had his son
Speaker 2: visiting down with my kids at the same time, so
Speaker 2: we were able to get all the boys out. So
Speaker 2: Everett Colt and his son Wade to go and help
Speaker 2: track his dough and so that was the first time
Speaker 2: Wade was ever able to be on a blood trail
Speaker 2: and help recover deer with his dad. So it's really
Speaker 2: awesome to share that with him. And then the highlight
Speaker 2: probably I mean right up there at the top of
Speaker 2: my highlights for the year, maybe the number one highlight
Speaker 2: of the year. This would have been just a few
Speaker 2: nights ago. Me and Everett went out. So my five
Speaker 2: year old son, he's been out quite a bit with
Speaker 2: me in the past. He started hunting with me when
Speaker 2: he was three. Last year, as a four year old,
Speaker 2: he went out quite a bit. I've talked about some
Speaker 2: of the really cool hunts we had. We had a
Speaker 2: couple close calls with Wide nine, a couple close calls
Speaker 2: trying to get a dough, but we just couldn't quite
Speaker 2: get it done. So this year we're hoping to get
Speaker 2: over the hump. And four or five nights ago, we
Speaker 2: go out and we're sitting in this big box linef
Speaker 2: got and it was just one of those nights that
Speaker 2: the stars aligned and magic happened. He was great sneaking
Speaker 2: out there. I remember we were slipping out to the tree.
Speaker 2: He kept on looking at me and giving me a
Speaker 2: big thumbs up, And then one time he kind of
Speaker 2: starts whispering to me, and I leaned down to hear
Speaker 2: what he's saying. He says, hey, Dad, we're doing a
Speaker 2: lot better job than last time, aren't we. We're being
Speaker 2: really quiet. And it was so funny that he brought
Speaker 2: this up himself, because last time we went hunting together
Speaker 2: it was one of those really still nights. There was
Speaker 2: no wind and it was very dry, so the leaves
Speaker 2: were incredibly crunchy. There was no masking noise, and I
Speaker 2: was just very stressed about how allowed to work getting
Speaker 2: in and so I remember just like repeating to him,
Speaker 2: like got to slow down, we gotta be quiet. And
Speaker 2: then eventually I just picked him up and put him
Speaker 2: on my shoulders for the last little bit to get
Speaker 2: to the blind, because I was just was worried every
Speaker 2: day in the world was gonna hear us. That was
Speaker 2: last time, but this time the leaves are a little
Speaker 2: bit moist. It was a little to breeze, and so
Speaker 2: he actually noticed himself how much quieter we were, and
Speaker 2: he was excited about that. So that was cool. And
Speaker 2: then we get up there on the blind and we're
Speaker 2: sitting there and you know, I like to read him
Speaker 2: some stories and we he's getting good at seeing through
Speaker 2: the binoculars and scanning things. And it was a pretty
Speaker 2: slow start to the night. But then right at the
Speaker 2: end of the evening, maybe the last half hour or so,
Speaker 2: I see a dough pop out, and then another dough
Speaker 2: and another dough, and they come or heading right into
Speaker 2: the food plot we were hunting, and then a buck,
Speaker 2: and then I realized This isn't just a buck, this
Speaker 2: is bulldozer. This is the biggest buck left on this
Speaker 2: particular property, this set of properties that I hunt. This
Speaker 2: is the number one buck I'll be hunting next year.
Speaker 2: And it's a deer that ever actually named last year.
Speaker 2: And so like end of the season, we're talking like December,
Speaker 2: I don't know what it was, thirtieth or twenty ninth
Speaker 2: or something like that. Late. I mean, there's been a
Speaker 2: lot of pressure and here's the number one deer and
Speaker 2: this is the closest encounter I have with him the
Speaker 2: entire season. I've never been this close to him this year.
Speaker 2: And here he is. He comes walking right in to
Speaker 2: gun range until probably seventy yards smack dab in front
Speaker 2: of me in my five year old like really cool encounter.
Speaker 2: And then matured, oh, comes in a range, gives me
Speaker 2: a perfect broadside shop. Everett was a champ. So I
Speaker 2: told him, hey, like, if these deer come out and
Speaker 2: I have to open the windows, and when I do that,
Speaker 2: I need you to be sitting very still, be very quiet.
Speaker 2: But then I also need you to act as my
Speaker 2: eyes because in this particular blind I've got to stand up,
Speaker 2: I've got to lift the window up. I have to
Speaker 2: latch it shut and then slowly sit back down and
Speaker 2: try to do all that without deer seeing us, you know,
Speaker 2: seventy yards away or whatever whatever. It was probably closer
Speaker 2: to fifty or sixty at this point. And so we
Speaker 2: do that. I've opened that window and I'm whispering to
Speaker 2: him like, hey, are they looking at me? And at
Speaker 2: one point he's like, yeah, freeze, So I freeze. He's like, okay,
Speaker 2: you can start to move. And I start to move
Speaker 2: and says, O, I freeze. I froze again, and he says, okay,
Speaker 2: you can start to move, but go really slow. So
Speaker 2: I keep on easing down. And so he's guiding me
Speaker 2: as if he's the adult, telling me exactly what I
Speaker 2: need to do. And he did it perfectly, and I
Speaker 2: was able to sit. And in my head I'm thinking, like,
Speaker 2: there's no way there's not deer staring at it right now.
Speaker 2: But sure enough, he knew what he was doing. He
Speaker 2: guided me perfectly. Now I'm able to sit down, I'm
Speaker 2: able to get my gun up, I'm able to get
Speaker 2: the deer in the crosshairs. I whisper to him to
Speaker 2: make sure he's ready. He's already covering his ears. He's
Speaker 2: already sitting back in his chair. He's ready. I take
Speaker 2: the shot. It's a good shot. The dough runs off,
Speaker 2: and then Everett is just out of his mind, just
Speaker 2: like the tiger woods fist whatever you call the fist thing,
Speaker 2: fist pump, thank you, the tiger was fist pumped, just like, Yes, Yes,
Speaker 2: we did it, Dad, We did it. Dad kept on
Speaker 2: getting hug he was high fives, hugs, high fives. He
Speaker 2: told me that he had happy tears because he was
Speaker 2: so excited, and it was just right up there with
Speaker 2: the very very coolest hunting experiences of my entire life. Ever,
Speaker 2: it's been so into all this, he's been, you know, constantly,
Speaker 2: you know, imagining those kinds of moments himself, playing out
Speaker 2: these moments in the house. It's really really fun to
Speaker 2: see and to actually have him there now for one
Speaker 2: of these hunts that came together really special. So we
Speaker 2: went home, had dinner, came back out. We're able to
Speaker 2: pick up the blood trail. Ever, was able to find
Speaker 2: the blood and he let it led the blood trail.
Speaker 2: He can see it way better than me, and he
Speaker 2: led us right to that deer and eventually helped me,
Speaker 2: you know, with the gutting, helped me drag it out.
Speaker 2: My younger son, Colt, was able to come along for
Speaker 2: the track job too, so he got to be there.
Speaker 2: Just a really, really really great night and you know,
Speaker 2: without a doubt, I keep on saying that without a doubt.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure why, but it was just another one
Speaker 2: of those great highlights. And then finally, if we're talking
Speaker 2: about you know, big wins or accomplished goals, the whole
Speaker 2: Wide nine saga was you know right up there too.
Speaker 2: I don't need to belabor it. We had a whole
Speaker 2: podcast about it maybe a month ago, so a lot
Speaker 2: of you already know the story there. But that was
Speaker 2: one of those honey experiences that taught me so much.
Speaker 2: I learned so much along the way. I went through
Speaker 2: all sorts, ups and downs, a lot of frustrating moments,
Speaker 2: disappointing moments, but ultimately got very fortunate that after getting
Speaker 2: a shot at him with my bow in October and
Speaker 2: hit him in the shoulder, he survived, and I was
Speaker 2: able to get another shot at him in November with
Speaker 2: my firearm and was able to finish the deal. And
Speaker 2: that whole set of experiences was you know, while trials
Speaker 2: and tribulations along the way, was a net positive and
Speaker 2: in a very very meaningful hunt as well. So those
Speaker 2: are my big wins. Those are the reasons why I
Speaker 2: look at this season as, without a doubt, the best
Speaker 2: hunting season of my life. All of that time with
Speaker 2: my kids, all of that time with my dad, so
Speaker 2: many different hunts I got to share with my hunting buddies,
Speaker 2: killed three mature bucks, one of them being like the
Speaker 2: buck I was after, with so much history and so
Speaker 2: many different experiences, got to mentor several different new hunters.
Speaker 2: I got to have, you know, really cool experiences with
Speaker 2: other hunters and anglers out there giving back to the landscape.
Speaker 2: Got to take Colt, my three year old, for a
Speaker 2: hunt on the last day of the season, just last night,
Speaker 2: and you know, he's not quite at the level that
Speaker 2: ever it is right now, but we had some fun too.
Speaker 2: Just so many cool experiences like that with the family,
Speaker 2: and and what there was I guess three bucks and
Speaker 2: five dos this year and just uncountable memories. So that's
Speaker 2: step one is going through and writing down all those
Speaker 2: big wins and kind of doing what I just did there,
Speaker 2: which I encourage you to do in your own way,
Speaker 2: maybe maybe not talking to a microphone for half an
Speaker 2: hour talking through every one of those points, but trying
Speaker 2: to think it through and relive them kind of like
Speaker 2: I just did, because that was that was a lot
Speaker 2: of fun for me, and that was a very productive
Speaker 2: way I think, to just again experience and appreciate gratitude
Speaker 2: for what happened. So that's that's what I think I
Speaker 2: would recommend you start with, and then take a little
Speaker 2: bit of time to think through all those things that
Speaker 2: we just talked about that went well, and think about
Speaker 2: the why. This is something again that we've emphasized on
Speaker 2: the podcast a lot over the years, but ask why.
Speaker 2: So when it comes back to you know, I don't know,
Speaker 2: the Wisconsin Minnesota trip, why was that so much fun?
Speaker 2: Why did that go so well? Why did I enjoy
Speaker 2: that so much? I think I think I shared some
Speaker 2: of the reasons why in my explanation to you, things
Speaker 2: like getting to spend time with Doug, geting to spend
Speaker 2: time with my buddies up in the boundary waters, getting
Speaker 2: to camp, getting to fish, having a diverse experience, and
Speaker 2: I think when you take a second to think about that,
Speaker 2: it helps inform the decisions you want to make in
Speaker 2: the future. Maybe I want to do more trips like
Speaker 2: that that are outside of the ordinary. Maybe I do
Speaker 2: need to continue prioritizing experience over the best chance to
Speaker 2: kill big buck or what about You know, why was
Speaker 2: this hunting season the best ever? Well, a huge part
Speaker 2: of it. It's just about the times I got to
Speaker 2: spell my sons. I didn't kill the biggest year of
Speaker 2: my life. I didn't kill anywhere close to the biggest
Speaker 2: year of my life, but this is by far the
Speaker 2: best year. Why. It's because of people, It's because of memories.
Speaker 2: It's because of investing time and energy into doing hard
Speaker 2: things and seeing that come together and learning from it.
Speaker 2: It's about prioritizing, you know, time with my dad, all
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. This year I think has been
Speaker 2: a perfect It's been a great example of why that
Speaker 2: kind of stuff matters. So take some time to go
Speaker 2: through your list of wins or your accomplished goals or
Speaker 2: whatever that list is for you, and ask why for
Speaker 2: each one, and maybe write down a little sub bule
Speaker 2: it's like, Okay, this came together because I did this
Speaker 2: extra work, or because I followed through on this plan,
Speaker 2: or because I actually, you know, took the time to
Speaker 2: do a B and C in preparation for the season.
Speaker 2: Or maybe it's because I learned not to stress so much,
Speaker 2: or maybe I learned to share intel with someone else
Speaker 2: and then that, you know, the favor was reciprocated. Whatever
Speaker 2: it is, it's worthwhile to think about how this stuff
Speaker 2: all came to be, because most of the things on
Speaker 2: your list probably didn't happen by happenstance. Sure, good luck
Speaker 2: always plays a role, but there's probably some decision along
Speaker 2: the way, or some act of goodwill from a friend,
Speaker 2: or some serendipity or whatever it is. It's all worth
Speaker 2: noting and kind of recognizing. Write that down, Put that
Speaker 2: down your list. That's our first part of this whole thing.
Speaker 2: Now there's gonna be another column, I would suggest, you're right,
Speaker 2: or another page. And this is going to be our
Speaker 2: win or sorry, the opposite of our wins. This is
Speaker 2: gonna be our mistake or our misses or our disappointments.
Speaker 2: This is going to be the list of things that
Speaker 2: maybe didn't go so well. Maybe these are the goals
Speaker 2: you didn't accomplish. Maybe these are those moments that you regret.
Speaker 2: Maybe these are going to be the decisions that you
Speaker 2: look back with a sense of sadness or frustration, whatever
Speaker 2: it is. Left takes some time now to think back
Speaker 2: on those. I know it's it's tempting and easy to
Speaker 2: want to bury that stuff. I've done that too, where
Speaker 2: something bad happens or something frustrating happens during the hunting season,
Speaker 2: I just want to forget about it and I want
Speaker 2: to move on, and I don't want to pull that
Speaker 2: out of the closet again. But it's almost always better
Speaker 2: for the future if we can pull that skeleton out
Speaker 2: of the closet, looking in the eye in daylight and
Speaker 2: talk about with ourselves what happened here. So here in
Speaker 2: this phase, we're going to write all that stuff down.
Speaker 2: We're going to write them down, the mistakes we made.
Speaker 2: We're going to write down the things that maybe there
Speaker 2: wasn't even a mistake made. Maybe just think didn't go
Speaker 2: quite the way you want him to. And it's worth
Speaker 2: kind of thinking about what happened in the why so
Speaker 2: few things? For me, the big thing that stands out
Speaker 2: for me would be something that has been a continued
Speaker 2: area of development for me over the years, which is shooting.
Speaker 2: Like the biggest points of frustration for me this year
Speaker 2: were related to bad shots. The most notable one was
Speaker 2: the shot on the Y nine hit him in the shoulder,
Speaker 2: and you know, as most of you know, as I
Speaker 2: just told you, wasn't able to recover him. Heartbreaking situation.
Speaker 2: It led to a whole lot of stress for me.
Speaker 2: It led to you know, that deer unnecessarily suffering to
Speaker 2: some degree over the next month until I was able
Speaker 2: to get another shot at him. It led to just
Speaker 2: just a lot of angst. Right So that happened the
Speaker 2: buck I shot in Wisconsin earlier, that shot was a
Speaker 2: little back And so like each one of these things,
Speaker 2: it's worth talking to this thing happened and then think
Speaker 2: through why did it happen? And I'm not going to
Speaker 2: go through that right now on the air, because we
Speaker 2: already did that when I had the Why nine podcast.
Speaker 2: You already heard me talk about that with the Wisconsin podcast.
Speaker 2: Probably you know, I've been able to kind of process
Speaker 2: what happened with each one of those shots. I've been
Speaker 2: able to think through what I wanted to do differently,
Speaker 2: or what I could have done differently, or what happened
Speaker 2: that was outside of my hands. But I'd recommend you
Speaker 2: do this yourself. Whether it be a bad shot, whether
Speaker 2: it be a hunt that just didn't go well, whether
Speaker 2: it be losing access to a spot or getting a
Speaker 2: fight with a hunting buddy, or your equipment failing, or
Speaker 2: whatever it is, write down the thing that happened, and
Speaker 2: then the next thing we're gonna do is talk about
Speaker 2: why So. That's why I did with this Wisconsin buck,
Speaker 2: That's why I did with the Why nine. I had
Speaker 2: another situation after the so I shot the Y nine
Speaker 2: did not recover him. Then I went to Nebraska killed
Speaker 2: the buck in Nebraska. But when I got back from
Speaker 2: that trip, I thought, man, I just gotta I need
Speaker 2: to just keep getting my archery confidence back up after
Speaker 2: the whole y nine things. So I was like, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna shoot a dough and I want to get a
Speaker 2: great shot and I want to feel great about it.
Speaker 2: So I did, and then that shot was a little
Speaker 2: bit back and that got me just so frustrated because
Speaker 2: I was I was so dead set on I need
Speaker 2: a perfect shot in this deer to get my confidence
Speaker 2: back and to get my moja leading to the rest
Speaker 2: of the season. And then I you know, fudge that
Speaker 2: shot a little bit, and I remember just being in
Speaker 2: a very frustrated place in you know, mid November, and
Speaker 2: that is a thing that I look back on as hey,
Speaker 2: that was that was a set of mistakes there. So
Speaker 2: what can I keep doing? Like, how do I get
Speaker 2: better at this? How do I continue to grow? And
Speaker 2: as we talked about during the Wide nine podcast, there's
Speaker 2: a whole set of new things that I'm doing now
Speaker 2: going into the new year. And that's that involves, you know,
Speaker 2: simplifying my archers, set up, changing my sights, set up
Speaker 2: changing my bow, changing my maximum range, a number of
Speaker 2: different things that I'm going to do to continue to address,
Speaker 2: you know, how I can become a better archer and
Speaker 2: a more effective bowhunter in those final moments of truth.
Speaker 2: And so that's what I would recommend to do with
Speaker 2: this list. We write down the list of all the
Speaker 2: things that didn't go the way we wanted them to.
Speaker 2: We start asking why for each one of those things,
Speaker 2: why did this happen? What led to it? What was
Speaker 2: the mistake or what was the bad luck or what
Speaker 2: was the circumstance? Right this probably combination of all those things.
Speaker 2: And then finally the last step is, Okay, what can
Speaker 2: we learn from this? What could I do a little
Speaker 2: bit different? What do I need to think about differently
Speaker 2: next year? What do I need to do differently next year?
Speaker 2: How do we move forward from this in a different way?
Speaker 2: And the same thing again can be applied to the
Speaker 2: first part. So I didn't explicitly mention this, but when
Speaker 2: it comes to your good side of the list, at
Speaker 2: the end of that, we should also be thinking, Okay,
Speaker 2: what do we learn from this, and how do I
Speaker 2: make more of these things happen in the future. So
Speaker 2: this is a thought exercise that we do with the good,
Speaker 2: it's a thought exercise that we do with the bad.
Speaker 2: And then all of that kind of puts you in
Speaker 2: a place that you can start thinking about the new year.
Speaker 2: So we do that year and review, and that gives
Speaker 2: us the foundation for the next year preview or whatever
Speaker 2: you want to call it, or preparation or goal setting.
Speaker 2: And again I think this is something that you know,
Speaker 2: it's cliche to set new year's resolutions or whatever, and
Speaker 2: so I wouldn't suggest we do that, but I would suggest,
Speaker 2: at least for me, it's very helpful to go through
Speaker 2: this whole thing and put together a plan for the
Speaker 2: new year, because it gives me something to work towards.
Speaker 2: It gives me something to continuously check back on and see, like, hey,
Speaker 2: am I on track? Am I going in the right direction?
Speaker 2: Am I doing those things that I know? You know
Speaker 2: it matter to me. It kind of goes back to
Speaker 2: what we talked about earlier. Life is so wild. This
Speaker 2: train is going so fast that the days can just
Speaker 2: stack up. Right. You can just like, I just gotta
Speaker 2: get through today. And if you can get through today,
Speaker 2: then I can I get through tomorrow, And if you
Speaker 2: get through tomorrow's it just get to the weekend. When
Speaker 2: the weekend comes, you just grow so exhausted. You just
Speaker 2: want to relax for a day or two, and then
Speaker 2: you've got to get a bunch of chores done, or
Speaker 2: work around the house, or deliver kids to hear there,
Speaker 2: whatever it is. Before you know, it's Monday again, and
Speaker 2: then you just want to get through Monday. Then you
Speaker 2: just want to get to the weekend. And then this
Speaker 2: happens week after week after week after week, and that
Speaker 2: is how your life flashes before your eyes and you
Speaker 2: blink and one day you're sixty or seventy or forty
Speaker 2: or whatever it is, and you think to yourself, where
Speaker 2: did the time go? Life and momentum can just kind
Speaker 2: of take you somewhere if you don't take a moment
Speaker 2: to stop reflect and actually put tracks and plans down
Speaker 2: in place for where you want to go. Because if
Speaker 2: you don't choose where you want to go, other people will.
Speaker 2: Life will put your places, work will put your places.
Speaker 2: Other people's priorities will put you places and suck up
Speaker 2: your time, and all of a sudden, your life is
Speaker 2: kind of outside of your hands if you don't take
Speaker 2: the time to do this kind of thing and to
Speaker 2: try to stick with it in some kind of way.
Speaker 2: And so when it comes to our hunting, if we
Speaker 2: want to grow as hunters, if we want to continue
Speaker 2: to have satisfying, fulfilling, successful hunting seasons in one way
Speaker 2: or another, this kind of process looking into the new
Speaker 2: year is one of the best ways I know of
Speaker 2: to do that, at least, so I think the first
Speaker 2: thing I would do when it comes to thinking about
Speaker 2: the new year, after we've just performed that whole end
Speaker 2: of your review is take a little bit of time
Speaker 2: to think about the themes that bubbled up in that
Speaker 2: end of your review, I talked about some of these
Speaker 2: in myself. In my own review, I talked about how
Speaker 2: a lot of my joy and satisfaction came from times
Speaker 2: of friends and family. I talked about how I got
Speaker 2: a lot of joy out of giving back during those
Speaker 2: working for wildlife tour events. Talked about how much satisfaction
Speaker 2: I got out of mentoring those new hunters. I talked
Speaker 2: about how great it was to do something different, to
Speaker 2: have a more diverse experience with that whole Minnesota Wisconsin trip.
Speaker 2: Those are some themes that I think can help you.
Speaker 2: And your version will be different, but if you think
Speaker 2: about some things like that, I think it helps you
Speaker 2: start to maybe put words to, or some level of
Speaker 2: concreteness to what your values or motivations for hunting are.
Speaker 2: And maybe that's as I talk about this, maybe that's
Speaker 2: a useful thing. Maybe right now, as you're doing this,
Speaker 2: as we're planning for twenty twenty four or whatever year
Speaker 2: it is that you're planning for right now, maybe before
Speaker 2: we set our goals down, maybe we should just write
Speaker 2: down right now a handful of the things that matter
Speaker 2: to us when it comes to hunt. Why do we hunt?
Speaker 2: What are the things that bring us the most joy.
Speaker 2: What are we trying to do? Here's okay, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: start writing my list and and say, okay, I want
Speaker 2: to put food in the freezer. Number one, I got
Speaker 2: to put meat in the freezer. Number two. I want
Speaker 2: to have like close deep engagement with wildlife. I want
Speaker 2: to get to know the wild landscape and wild animals more.
Speaker 2: Number three, I want to have adventure. I want to
Speaker 2: push myself. I want to challenge myself. I want to,
Speaker 2: you know, back to these other things. I want to
Speaker 2: do these things with the people I care about. I
Speaker 2: want to spend more time with my dad and my
Speaker 2: sons and my friends. I want to, you know, whatever
Speaker 2: it is, YadA, YadA, YadA, start just writing down all
Speaker 2: these things related to hunting that matter to you and
Speaker 2: that bring you joy and that keep you doing this
Speaker 2: kind of thing. Maybe it's hey, I love seeing deer
Speaker 2: reach older age classes. I love getting to know these
Speaker 2: deer yea after year. Maybe it's I love the challenge
Speaker 2: of going into public land where everyone else is trying
Speaker 2: to do the same thing, and somehow I'm able to
Speaker 2: go in there and be that one percent that actually
Speaker 2: finds that book. Whatever the thing is that gets you
Speaker 2: up out of bed in the morning, write those things down,
Speaker 2: because I think if we can do that, actually like
Speaker 2: put words to the reasons why we're doing this, Like
Speaker 2: why the heck are you listening to this podcast? Why
Speaker 2: do you listen to Wired Time? Why do you love
Speaker 2: this stuff enough that you're willing to listen to some
Speaker 2: nerd like me talk about it week after week after
Speaker 2: week after week. What is it about this experience and
Speaker 2: this lifestyle and this pursuit that makes it so so something,
Speaker 2: whatever that something is for you, write that stuff down,
Speaker 2: And I think once we do that, I think, and
Speaker 2: that can inform how we set our goals and hopes
Speaker 2: and dreams for the next season. So that's it. One
Speaker 2: other kind of thought before we talk through some goals
Speaker 2: or talk through like how you might want to set
Speaker 2: some goals, is that I would really encourage you to
Speaker 2: not make the same mistake I've made in the past,
Speaker 2: which is letting other people's thoughts or opinions impact your goals.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I necessarily realized this was happening
Speaker 2: to me for a number of years, but I was
Speaker 2: so worried about you know, if other people thought I
Speaker 2: was a good enough hunter, or if I was killing
Speaker 2: enough deer or a big enough dear or whatever it
Speaker 2: was that I was putting pressure on myself to do
Speaker 2: these things to satisfy someone else's demands. And that is
Speaker 2: a really silly and trivial thing to do, especially when
Speaker 2: the pursuit that we're involved in is so damn serious.
Speaker 2: If you're gonna hunt and kill an animal, it sure
Speaker 2: as hell shouldn't be because you care what some person
Speaker 2: on Instagram thinks about you doing that. It should be
Speaker 2: for a very real, deep personal reason. So our goals
Speaker 2: around this whole thing, I would suggest, should be about
Speaker 2: us and not about others. It's very easy, though, to
Speaker 2: let that slip into our subconscious, to worry about what
Speaker 2: other people will think, to worry about Oh man, what
Speaker 2: if I shoot this little buck and someone on Facebook
Speaker 2: tells me I should have given another year, Or what
Speaker 2: if I, you know, want to do this thing or
Speaker 2: use this tool or use whatever. There's going to be
Speaker 2: people who don't like that, or people don't think I
Speaker 2: do this well enough for people, whatever, YadA, YadA, YadA.
Speaker 2: Close out that noise. Please try to just look inside
Speaker 2: yourself as you start thinking about this new year and
Speaker 2: then start. I think a good starting point is to
Speaker 2: just start writing down like some hopes and some dreams,
Speaker 2: like some things that you would love to see happen.
Speaker 2: And that's a starting point, like it's brain starting, like
Speaker 2: when I write, when I write anything, really, when I'm
Speaker 2: writing a book or an article or a newsletter. Something
Speaker 2: that's very, very very helpful for me is to remember
Speaker 2: that all all first drafts are shit. Excuse my French,
Speaker 2: but just getting something down is the way to start.
Speaker 2: You don't need to have it just right. You don't
Speaker 2: need to be perfect. Nobody writes Ernest Hemingway quality words
Speaker 2: when they start. Nobody writes good goals when they start.
Speaker 2: You just got to vomited out on the page. So
Speaker 2: just right now, or after our conversation here today, just
Speaker 2: start writing down things that you maybe want to do
Speaker 2: next season. Maybe you want to take that trip to
Speaker 2: Ohio for the face first time. Maybe you want to
Speaker 2: try to get that lease. Maybe you want to try
Speaker 2: to explore some new public land. Maybe you want to
Speaker 2: finally learn how to bowhunt or try traditional archery, or
Speaker 2: maybe you want to try hunting without trial cameras, or
Speaker 2: maybe whatever it is, just start writing those things down.
Speaker 2: Just get that brainstorm list down on paper in front
Speaker 2: of you, and then once you do that, then we
Speaker 2: can start thinking about creating a little bit more tangible goals.
Speaker 2: So have that brainstorm list, and then I would encourage
Speaker 2: you to, you know, maybe circle or start next to
Speaker 2: those very most import and ones. I don't know what
Speaker 2: the right number is. I think everyone's got a different
Speaker 2: right number. For me, I usually can have maybe two, three,
Speaker 2: four goals per category in my life, So I can
Speaker 2: have like maybe two or three different things related to work.
Speaker 2: You have like two or three things related to like
Speaker 2: my personal or home life. I can have like two
Speaker 2: or three things related to hunting something like that. That's
Speaker 2: what works for me because if you've got you know,
Speaker 2: ten goals for everything, it's it's it's impossible to do
Speaker 2: everything just right, but I can do I can focus
Speaker 2: pretty darn well on a couple things and make meaningful
Speaker 2: progress on them if I focus in that kind of way.
Speaker 2: So that's just what works well for me, not saying
Speaker 2: it will for you. But the way I'm going to
Speaker 2: do this, the way I would offer you to consider
Speaker 2: is to from that big brainstorm list, pick out that
Speaker 2: top three or four items maybe that you see as
Speaker 2: being either the area for most growth or the thing
Speaker 2: that will bring the most satisfaction or joy, maybe something
Speaker 2: that will challenge you. Pick on a handful of things
Speaker 2: like that and highlight those those top goals, whatever those
Speaker 2: big things are going to be, whether it's the thing
Speaker 2: that's going to push you to grow or just help
Speaker 2: you love this thing, and even more, highlight that. And
Speaker 2: then we're going to try to or at least you know,
Speaker 2: what I try to do is then kind of make
Speaker 2: these goals more concrete, and I follow generally follow a
Speaker 2: set of principles around goals called smart and so these
Speaker 2: this is like it's an acronym smart. So s M
Speaker 2: a R T is a set of five different things
Speaker 2: to think about when trying to write an effective goal.
Speaker 2: And so these five different things to think about would
Speaker 2: be that your goals should be specific, they should be measurable,
Speaker 2: they should be actionable, they should be realistic but maybe
Speaker 2: also a little risky, and they should be time bound,
Speaker 2: so they should have some kind of time attached to it.
Speaker 2: So you know, an example like this, So again, like
Speaker 2: this is trying to help you avoid just a generic goal.
Speaker 2: So the generic goal might be like, hey, well, I'll
Speaker 2: just give you an example.
Speaker 1: For me.
Speaker 2: One of my goals this year is that I want
Speaker 2: to put some adventure back in my hunting. My wife
Speaker 2: actually brought this up to me this past season. She said,
Speaker 2: and I feel like you have just like settled into
Speaker 2: the comfortable stuff. You haven't been like doing anything wild
Speaker 2: and new and pushing yourself maybe in different ways. You're
Speaker 2: kind of hunting, you know, some of the same old places,
Speaker 2: and and I kind of argued with her unless I
Speaker 2: pushed back. I said, well, I'm I'm doing that for
Speaker 2: a reason. I'm trying to spend time like all the
Speaker 2: things I told you about already, and so I had
Speaker 2: good reasons for doing that, and I'm glad I did
Speaker 2: those things. But she did also kind of put a
Speaker 2: spark in me that got me thinking about, you know,
Speaker 2: I do also value the new, the different, thenallenging, and
Speaker 2: it got me thinking that I probably could use a
Speaker 2: real adventure. So I want to add some adventure back
Speaker 2: in my hunting season. And I'm honestly not exactly sure
Speaker 2: how I want to do that yet. I'm still working
Speaker 2: that through. But for our purposes now, the generic example
Speaker 2: might be like, just have a more adventures hunting season.
Speaker 2: Like that would be the the not as useful goal
Speaker 2: to have. The way to make this more useful would
Speaker 2: be to you know, maybe that's the starting point. But
Speaker 2: then I'm going to take a week or a few
Speaker 2: days or whatever it is and think more about it
Speaker 2: and start trying to think through, Okay, how can I actually,
Speaker 2: you know, make this goal pop. Because if you can
Speaker 2: make your goals more specific, more measurable, more actionable, more
Speaker 2: realistic or risky, and also have a time associated if
Speaker 2: you can plan that out, write that kind of stuff down,
Speaker 2: it makes it a lot easier and more likely that
Speaker 2: you will follow through on it. So a different way
Speaker 2: to approach that goal might be, Okay, I'm going to
Speaker 2: try to be specific with this goal. So I'm going
Speaker 2: to think about how could I make my hunting season
Speaker 2: more adventurous. And let's say, well, you know what, I
Speaker 2: should go to a true wilderness area and try to
Speaker 2: pull off a whitetail hunt in a true wilderness area.
Speaker 2: Let's say, and I'm going to think about, you know,
Speaker 2: maybe a very specific place. Maybe I'll say, like, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm going to go to this national forest in this state,
Speaker 2: and I'm going to do a week long backpacking whitetail hunt.
Speaker 2: And this is something like when it comes to measurable,
Speaker 2: it's obviously measurable because it's either you do it or
Speaker 2: you don't do it. Actionable, you know, is it a
Speaker 2: thing you can actually take action on? Absolutely? And what
Speaker 2: I would recommend you do underneath these goals eventually we'll
Speaker 2: get to this is I actually start writing action items.
Speaker 2: So what do you need to do to make this
Speaker 2: thing happen? Is it realistic? In this case? I think
Speaker 2: it's something that is within the realm of possibility for me.
Speaker 2: It's not like I'm saying, hey, I'm going to go
Speaker 2: and do this thing that costs fifty thousand dollars. No,
Speaker 2: this is something I can do within my budget, within
Speaker 2: my a lot of time, with my skill set. But
Speaker 2: still it's a challenge. It's going to push me to
Speaker 2: do new things, to try new things, to go new places,
Speaker 2: and then finally put a time stamp on it. You know,
Speaker 2: I don't want to just say like, hey, I want
Speaker 2: to do more adventurous things. That leads a whole lot
Speaker 2: of open endedness to all this. I would say that
Speaker 2: I would say, okay, I want to happen in this season,
Speaker 2: or even better, like, hey, I'm going to do it
Speaker 2: the month of September or the month of October or
Speaker 2: whatever it is. The specific goal in the end would
Speaker 2: be something like my goal for twenty twenty four is
Speaker 2: to go on a wilderness backpacking whitetail hunt in Minnesota
Speaker 2: in the month of November with my boat, whatever it is.
Speaker 2: That is a very smart, quote unquote goal. And if
Speaker 2: you can do a handful of those, you will have
Speaker 2: done the thinking and the kind of intellectual handiwork to
Speaker 2: have put you in a place to actually do this stuff.
Speaker 2: So one of my goals is get some adventure back
Speaker 2: in my hunting season. The second goal, the second big one,
Speaker 2: is just related to the shooting thing I talked about earlier.
Speaker 2: And I haven't quite figured out how I want to
Speaker 2: frame this yet for myself, but you know, there's gonna
Speaker 2: be a number of things. I want to have that
Speaker 2: perfect shot like I want to have. I've yet to
Speaker 2: have a shot in which I would give myself the
Speaker 2: A plus plus rating in which I did everything right,
Speaker 2: in which I did not rush in any kind of
Speaker 2: part of it, where everything was under control, where everything
Speaker 2: went exactly the way I wanted to. I've had a
Speaker 2: lot of shots that went the way I wanted them to.
Speaker 2: I just have yet to have that perfect shot where
Speaker 2: I was, where I was the machine, at the driver's
Speaker 2: controls the entire time. That's what I want to somehow achieve.
Speaker 2: And I don't know if that happens for anyone all
Speaker 2: the time or ever. Maybe it doesn't, Maybe we're all
Speaker 2: in some different version of imperfection on these shots. But
Speaker 2: I want to keep on striving for that, and so
Speaker 2: I want to craft a goal and a set of
Speaker 2: action items to get me closer of that. So I've
Speaker 2: already talked about it right I'm, you know, pulling in
Speaker 2: my max range. I'm doing the thirty yard pinning in
Speaker 2: challenge this year. So that's leading to me and reconfiguring
Speaker 2: my both set up. That's good, leading me to rethink
Speaker 2: my both setups, some locations, lots of stuff like that.
Speaker 2: So there's going to be a shooting related goal in
Speaker 2: there for myself. And then I'm also setting some non
Speaker 2: hunting goals that are kind of adjacent to hunting. I
Speaker 2: want to do a big new physical challenge. Maybe that's
Speaker 2: doing my first marathon this year. Maybe it's a harder
Speaker 2: half marathon, but I'm thinking through that kind of stuff
Speaker 2: and all that I think helps me as a deer
Speaker 2: hunter and an outdoorsman. So all of this leads me
Speaker 2: to the final step, which is once you have your
Speaker 2: smart goals written out, or whatever version of goals that
Speaker 2: you want to do written out, what my final step
Speaker 2: is is that I like to go through and I
Speaker 2: think through action items for those goals, what are the
Speaker 2: next steps that I need to take to actually move
Speaker 2: forward on these things? And a kind of next level
Speaker 2: thing to do is something that I read about in
Speaker 2: a book called Atomic Habits by James Clear Really really
Speaker 2: really recommend that book. If there's any book I could
Speaker 2: recommend to you related to this kind of stuff, it
Speaker 2: would be Atomic Habits. It really walks through a great
Speaker 2: way like how you can set goals and achieve them,
Speaker 2: create new habits, break bad habits, whatever. It might be
Speaker 2: a lot of these things we're talking about, not all
Speaker 2: of them, but many of them could be related to habits.
Speaker 2: And he talks about not just writing down action items
Speaker 2: for your goals, but actually writing down systems, like thinking
Speaker 2: about not just like what's the next step I can
Speaker 2: do today, But what's the system I could put in
Speaker 2: place to make those steps easier to do? And I'm
Speaker 2: trying to think of what a good example of this
Speaker 2: might be. I guess, let's say with a shooting Let's
Speaker 2: say I have a goal around shooting and continuing to
Speaker 2: grow in that. In that way, an action item might
Speaker 2: be like, Hey, I'm just gonna shoot more. That's like
Speaker 2: the simple generic action item of a way that I
Speaker 2: pursue that goal. The system based approach would be to
Speaker 2: think about, okay, like how do I actually build a
Speaker 2: system that makes sure I do that? So a system
Speaker 2: to make sure that I shoot more might might include, Hey,
Speaker 2: I'm going to put a calendar notification for every day
Speaker 2: at the end of my work day from four thirty
Speaker 2: five that says, go shoot your bow. And then I
Speaker 2: also know that it's easy to maybe forget that too,
Speaker 2: So I'm also going to put my bow in the
Speaker 2: mud room next to the door so that every time
Speaker 2: I come in out of the house, I'm reminded of
Speaker 2: my bow being there. Or maybe I'm going to move
Speaker 2: the target to the front yard so I can't leave
Speaker 2: the house or get back to the house without seeing
Speaker 2: it there. And you know, maybe I'm going to do
Speaker 2: one last thing, which is adding a training kind of incentive,
Speaker 2: you know, sign myself up for a competition or something.
Speaker 2: Those three things would work together as a system that
Speaker 2: would pull me forward on that goal. This can look
Speaker 2: a lot of different ways, but think about how you
Speaker 2: can build build like an ecosystem, a thing that will
Speaker 2: help you move towards that goal. That would be the
Speaker 2: kind of the jiu jitsu move on how to take
Speaker 2: these goals to that next step. Again, I'm not doing
Speaker 2: a great job explaining how exactly to do that. Check
Speaker 2: out James Clear's book Atomic Habits. That's that final step,
Speaker 2: talking through, writing down how what kind of steps you
Speaker 2: can take, what kind of systems you can build, what
Speaker 2: kind of changes you need to make in the coming
Speaker 2: weeks or months to actually move you forward on those
Speaker 2: top three or four goals that we've talked about here today.
Speaker 2: And that's it. That is the year end review and
Speaker 2: the year coming preview. That's the process I go through
Speaker 2: to prepare for the year and for the hunting season.
Speaker 2: That's what I've just kind of completed or just kind
Speaker 2: of started really Yesterday's started that process today and the
Speaker 2: rest of this week, I'm going to be continuing to
Speaker 2: fine tune. I'm going to be start kind of taking
Speaker 2: my brainstorm goals and turning them into quote unquote smart
Speaker 2: goals and start working through my action items. And all
Speaker 2: of this might seem I mean, it doesn't seem. This
Speaker 2: is kind of nerdy, right, I get it, this is
Speaker 2: kind of I don't know, maybe some people are thinking
Speaker 2: this is way too much work to go through for hunting.
Speaker 2: We're just hunting. Just go out there, have fun. And
Speaker 2: you're right, like, if that's good for you, good, go
Speaker 2: have fun, Go do your thing. Don't worry about taking
Speaker 2: things to this level. But if you're someone like me,
Speaker 2: and if you listen to this podcast, you are probably
Speaker 2: kind of like me in one way or another, I
Speaker 2: think this is a way that you can, you know,
Speaker 2: learn to better appreciate this season. We just had learn
Speaker 2: from it more effectively and put yourself in position to
Speaker 2: have a more satisfying, joyful, successful hunting season in the
Speaker 2: new year. And that's my hope for you, that's my
Speaker 2: dream for you. My reason for doing this podcast now
Speaker 2: for ten plus years has always been that I hope
Speaker 2: that you can grow alongside of me and come to
Speaker 2: love hunting even more, come to be more successful as
Speaker 2: a hunter, and eventually, you know, be able to give
Speaker 2: back to others, bring other people into this community, into
Speaker 2: this lifestyle, and give back to the landscape and the critters.
Speaker 2: We can have more successful hunters, that will lead to
Speaker 2: more hunters, that will lead to better conserved landscapes, that
Speaker 2: will lead to healthier wildlife populations, and the cycle continues.
Speaker 2: That's my, I guess hope for all this, and that's
Speaker 2: why I'm here today and why I'm really thankful to
Speaker 2: be here in twenty twenty four, still doing it. So
Speaker 2: thank you guys for tuning in today, thank you for
Speaker 2: being a part of this podcast. Thanks for listening all
Speaker 2: of last year. It's been the honor of a lifetime.
Speaker 2: Excited to do it again this season. Check out the
Speaker 2: new Wired Hunt hats over at the Mediator Store if
Speaker 2: you want to support the podcast and rep the Wired
Speaker 2: to Hunt brand for your buddies to see. And I'm
Speaker 2: pretty sure it's going to be a lucky hat, So
Speaker 2: get them while they're hot. That's probably the number one
Speaker 2: thing we can all do to have a successful hunting
Speaker 2: season here in twenty four. But in all seriousness, appreciate you.
Speaker 2: Have a great day, have a great week, Enjoy these
Speaker 2: first couple days of the new year, and until next time,
Speaker 2: stay wired, Tom