Be specific and intentional when setting your goals

January is over and it's about the time we all start to rethink our New Year's resolutions and/or goals for the year. Are we sticking to the plan? Have you already abandoned or changed the goals that you set for 2025? Maybe you're one of the few that are still on track - good for you! I can go first and say that I haven't achieved a single one of my goals, but it hasn't been for a lack of trying. We're not giving up, just haven't crossed anything off yet...

Going into 2025 I put a lot of thought into what I wanted to get out of the New Year. I considered my personal goals, and also thought a lot about our mission here at Unpopular Outdoors "Get more people interested and involved in the outdoors to help protect our hunting, fishing and trapping rights!" I started to come up with a plan on how to try blend the two together. If you read our January blog post, https://www.unpopularoutdoors.com/post/we-offer-guiding-services-and-sell-apparel-but-that-s-not-really-what-we-re-about , you know we have a three phase approach on how we want to achieve our mission. We're currently working our way through phase 1 - We want to bring awareness to all the outdoor opportunities that exist right in our backyard. The first step in wanting to learn something new, or try to understand it, is knowing that the opportunity even exists.

I love learning new things, challenging myself, and getting outside. I'm at my best when I can combine all of those things together. I want to show anyone living in Michigan, specifically the Upper Peninsula, how many awesome outdoor opportunities are right here at your fingertips! My own personal goals for 2025 can be found on the poster I created below. I want to hunt, fish and trap one of everything that I've added to that poster, along with adding extra criteria to a few of the items. I'm not sure it's possible (for me), but I set intentional goals along with very specific ways I want to try and obtain them.

My personal 2025 goal chart

Don't just say you want to hunt more, or fish more -what does that even mean? Set specific amounts of time you want to be in the woods or on the water. Set actual dates in your calendar, block off the time. We all know what happens if you don't schedule and plan, it just never happens. Maybe your goal is to catch a trophy walleye. What is a trophy to you? Be specific. You're not human if you don't have goals, or things you want to accomplish. But what are you doing to achieve those things?

I've already had some incredible outdoor adventures this year, I've also experienced some terrible outings. I've personally caught walleye, perch, pike, brown trout and rainbow trout, but I haven't crossed anything off my goals sheet. Stick with it, pivot when you have to, but don't give up on yourself. Things always come up, that's part of it. That's when the real learning and growth happens. That's just as much a part of what we do more so than anything else. It's not always about getting the "trophy".

Set a goal, make a plan, get after it, get outside!