Do you ever just need an attitude adjustment? Here’s how Amy worked through her bad attitude last week and how she finally found her solution in the outdoors!
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Here’s an edited transcript of this entry of Amy’s Outdoor Diary. Listen to the episode on iTunes, Google Podcasts, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
Raise your hand if you’re in some serious need of an attitude adjustment.
I am not going to lie to anyone. Last week was really, really hard. I was taking intentionality to heart, making the time to go outside every day, working out in our driveway when I really didn’t want to, taking walks in the woods, enjoying the thaw.
But then it snowed again.
And then things were just hard. So so hard.
Work was hard, relationships were hard, the kids were at each other’s throats, the world was hard. Everything, literally everything, was hard.
But the outside was still there.
So I thought — why not go do something hard on purpose and then show everyone that hard things can be conquered. And by everyone I mean show myself, but I couldn’t do it. It was too hard.
I tried. I headed out to Lazy Mountain, this mountain near me that’s basically a straight up trail for like two and a half miles. 3000 feet, straight up. And I thought — you’ve done this 100 times; today, do it because it’s hard. And it was so hard.
I was huffing and puffing and sweating and swearing. Every fiber of me wanted to quit, but I made myself keep going. I coaxed myself up with things like saying — Amy, this could be a great shareable lesson and pushing through you love shareable lessons. And I do, but it was too much. I just didn’t want to.
So about halfway up, I stopped. I quit. I turned around, I went back to the car. Surely there’s some kind of lesson in stopping, right? But I don’t know. I didn’t care to look for it. Because by then my attitude was so bad, I didn’t care to do anything.
I tried again, for an attitude adjustment. Maybe — I thought — if we dig out our fire pit and then have a fire in the backyard the way we love doing, things will feel better, and this won’t be so sucky. So that’s what Luke did. We ate dinner around the fire pit. It was so great. And he was such a champ about it because let me just say, two feet a soggy snow isn’t that fun to shovel. But my attitude was barely better.
Fast forward to Sunday. I planned to go running, but I woke up with – Lord help us – I had a bad attitude again. And then I learned it might be windy and I did not want to go run in the wind. But I was convinced to get in the car anyway, I was convinced to hike up the start of the trail. I was convinced to give it 30 minutes and see if I felt better. And I’m happy to report, I did. With a push to the top, we made it up Wolverine Peak in Anchorage and it was, well it was just stunning. I hope you check out my Instagram photos so you can see it because there are no words to describe those views.
But most important, was the fixed attitude I found along the way. Problems feel surmountable. Now, the world feels okay-ish. I feel like I can do this week. I walked into the mountains where the current situation – yep, we’re still calling it that – wasn’t an issue and the only input and output was the world and the sun and the mountains and me. And I found the courage and optimism there to keep going.
This week’s outdoor hero, is Luke, husband extraordinaire, who puts up with this bad attitude, shoveled out that fire pit, did a few CrossFit workouts with me, and shooed me out the door for mountain therapy when I did not want to go and my attitude said, “Ignore me forever.”
If you want to see all of our outdoor adventures, good attitudes and bad, you can always check out Humans Outside on Instagram. Don’t forget to give us a follow and share your own outdoor adventures – yes, good attitudes and bad – with #humansoutside365. Until next time, we’ll see you out there.
