(SitNews) Ketchikan, Alaska - In the next few weeks we’ll draft lists of resolutions. We’ll prepare ourselves to stand on grassy hills with fishing rods, hunting rifles, kettle bells, mountain bikes, ab-rollers, recycling bins, organic Tofurky sausage in hand and piggy banks raised above our collective heads calling out, “Freedom” like William Wallace, ready to attack 2016 like warrior poets to win our freedom over stagnancy.

By this time next year we will be putting the finishing touch on a new existence we thought only applied to The Most Interesting Man in the World or Chuck Norris.

Right.

I read an article about what I already knew. But you know when you read something you already know, and it’s put in such a way that it makes even more sense than it already did and you really like it?

Yeah, that happened. Maybe it was because it reminded me of stuff I should deal with or that I’m on the right track. Either way, the words punched me in the temporal lobe.

The article mentioned that relatively recent methods of fitness (P90x, CrossFit, etc.) have glorified, or at least recognized that exercise and fitness is hard and worth the struggle. They are the antithesis of using just ten of your 1440 daily minutes, yet still expecting results.

Sure we’ve always known intellectually that it is worth the sacrifice to change a lifestyle but that doesn’t stop us from giving up. Maybe that’s why we are so bad at New Year’s Resolutions. We don’t appreciate, or we underestimate, the level of difficulty that comes with a restart.

Purpose and attitude are the first things that matter I suppose. Everything we read implores us to make the most of our minutes, and to live life with vigor, but we don’t. It’s easy to compare ourselves to someone who is more out of shape, less skilled, less motivated, eats more animals or is more responsible for depriving California of rain and Antarctica of ice. But it takes no resolve to justify or make excuses. It takes resolve to make meaningful change.

I’ve had really stupid resolutions, like to fish more. I wanted to fish 100 days one year while I lived in California. Which was funny, because half of those days would come during my summer trip home to Prince of Wales. But fishing more is about fishing – it doesn’t guaranty the extraction of any more enjoyment of my hours. It just means I will be waiving an expensive stick over a river with more frequency.

I don’t know what, or if I’ll have a resolution this year. Part of me thinks that if it’s not obvious, I might not need to change anything. I just need to do what I do much better.

That’ll be hard enough.

Jeff Lund ©2015

Jeff Lund is a Teacher, Freelance Writer, living in Ketchikan, Alaska
Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @alaskalund
Contact Jeff at Email – aklund21@gmail.com

http://www.jlundoutdoors.com

SitNews ©2015
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Ketchikan, Alaska

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