Many of us, including me (Shannon), function better with goals, deadlines, and challenges from an external source. As we have been cultivating the TRAIL FAMILY lifestyle in our own family, I have been pushing outside my comfort zone much more this year. One thing that has helped me is the #150hoursoutside project from Your Natural Learner. You can read about it on their blog if you like at yournaturallearner.com. The gist of it is that you set the goal to spend at least 150 hours outside during the year.
I first heard about the challenge from a friend who posted to Facebook that she was going to participate. After reading about the challenge back in January, I got really excited. This was just the push that I needed to get me outdoors more this year. It was especially motivating during the winter months when all I want to do is hibernate.
I felt terrible after the previous winter when I realized that we had only gone out to play in the snow twice the whole winter! This year was going to be different. The first real test of my resolve came when we were invited to an Ice Party. Some local friends annually host a party on their frozen pond. I was terribly underprepared and hadn’t gathered all the appropriate garments and equipment for the day, and we all froze. But when we look back, all we remember is that we had a great time.
An Ice Party was out of my comfort zone. I’d rather read a book by a fire any day, rather than be by and on the ice for hours. But I really enjoyed our time. The kids were pulled on sleds by ATV’s. There was a huge potluck where we tried a variety of foods, some we would never make. The highlight however was just spending time with dozens of people in our community around the bon fire. What is typically a time of the year where we hibernate, we got to spend many hours outside.
Later in the winter, our local park hosted a winter fun day. There was skating, ice fishing, sledding, and food. This time my kids were properly outfitted with snow pants, boots, skates, and mittens. (I expect my mom of the year award to arrive any day now.) Tim even ran home, got our taboggan, and gave our children and several others from the community some old fashioned fun. We all, once again, had an amazing afternoon outdoors.
While these two activities were not on the trail, they gave me much needed successes and motivation to keep going with becoming a TRAIL FAMILY. Since we were getting out in weather that would normally keep us inside, we took some early spring walks on the trail. We still needed jackets, hats, and gloves; but we loved getting out there.
How might you push yourself out of your comfort zone as you cultivate the TRAIL FAMILY lifestyle? What motivated you to get out of your comfort zone? How have you cultivated the TRAIL FAMILY lifestyle with your family this year?
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We love these ice skates that we bought for our girls a few years ago. They adjust four sizes so they can grow with your child. It was a great investment that saved us money over a few years time!
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