Your Definition

What defines you? Is it your job? Possibly your family or your level of education. Maybe your religion is your sense of self. Have you ever felt like you are not in control of your own definition of "you". Sometimes your job goes south and you feel paralyzed no matter how hard you work. Other times family members don't behave the way you want or a health factor decides to throw a wrench in your life. Many times we face unwanted and uncertain moments. This is where I found my personal pride. During the times I didn't know what direction to take or I should take or what people would think.....I climbed. I climbed the slopes, I climbed the mountains, I climbed the ice. I found there was one thing I could control and that was my outdoor spirit. I hiked, I ran, I rafted. All of these times I pulled my novice self up to the top little by little. I was drug back into the boat on a rafting excursion. I tumbled down the slopes over and over, but I always made it. I had control of where I wanted to go and I could spend as much or as little time working on it. I dove my ice pick into the ice walls, I skied through blizzards and in all of my life I have never felt such a sense of self pride.

Many times I talk with people on the topic of outdoor adventures. They light up and tell me their excursions, they tell about the times they tumbled and the times they fell with complete honesty. Because following those falls, they got back up. It wasn't about the best, it wasn't about first, it was about the pride of getting back up.

I've also heard people try to downplay the importance of these activities in their life. "well I started a lot later than most" "I'm not as fast as" "I had to stop for a bit" . Again, they follow this with excitement and continue the story.

For the record all of those things are true about me. I'm not the fastest, I'm not the "best", I'm not the strongest, I'm not the most coordinated but I am an adventurer. I am in control of my adventures and my abilities and can take my own steps to improve in my own way and on my own time.

Today is the day. Today is your day. Define yourself, not by what you think the outside world expects, but by your ability to go just a little further than you did yesterday. Start that hike you've wanted to take, raft that river you've been looking at, dive that ocean you've dreamed of. Do something new that requires you to test your own personal ability, feel the pride in yourself. You are going to fall, you are going to get bruised, you are going to be embarrassed, you are going to get messy. Then you are going to get back up and do it all again!