Setting Outdoor Goals for the New Year
Why you should set outdoor goals
Simply put, we set goals to give ourselves benchmarks or milestones to reach. These are individual and ideally would make us feel great about ourselves. Goals should make you look forward to the process instead of dreading it. For example, if you hate hiking but want to spend more time in nature, perhaps mountain biking or more camping trips are in your future!
You should set outdoor goals because it will help you intentionally make getting outside a priority. Spending time on anything is easily overlooked once you’re in the full swing of working/school/taking care of pets/taking care of children/literally anything that life throws at you.
Making the outdoors a priority is really the main reason behind setting outdoor goals for yourself.
How to reach your goals
Everyone has different motivators and ways to keep themselves on track. For me, I need little goals. I also need them to be fun. Goals like “lose X amount of weight” or “I’m going to cut out soda” haven’t stuck because it feels like a punishment. Last year I set a mileage goal for hiking and was pretty bummed out when things didn’t go to plan.
Having a set number of miles or a specific elevation gain made my goals feel like a chore. For some, having those types of metrics helps them, but if that’s not you, don’t force it. If you don’t like setting minimums for yourself try goals like
Go on a sunrise or sunset hike
Explore a new park
Camp in a new area
Hike to a waterfall
Try a new outdoor activity
Those types of goals offer a lot of flexibility.
My outdoor goals for 2022 and how I plan to achieve them
2021 was quite the year. I had lofty goals and didn’t hit them. In the moment I would beat myself up over them. That took away some of the joy I got from being outside.
So, in 2022 my goals are looking a bit different:
Go on a solo backpacking trip
Explore a national park I haven’t been to
Watch the sunrise in the mountains
Complete the first camping trip in the van (an attempt was made in 2021 but that was a complete shit-show)
Prioritize enjoying the outdoors vs. trying to always do the hardest things
One way I’m going to prioritize enjoying the outdoors is to have a jar of pre-selected hikes. I tend to get bogged down in planning things so I’m making a hiking jar. The jar has sticks with hikes written on them so when I want to go for a hike, I just pull it out of the jar and boom! It’s planned.
2022 is all about making my life more enjoyable, easier, and reducing unnecessary stress. This is one of the ways I’m doing it.
