LIU: Live it Up
Nolan was a young boy fishing with his Grandpa Billy in Jackson Creek. Nolan casted, and was astonished, he had caught his first fish! “What should I do with it Grandpa,” Nolan asked. “It’s your fish, live it up” Grandpa Billy told Nolan.
These words have stuck with Nolan and have since then established a mindset of “living it up” in his and our family’s life.
Nolan joined the United States Army in 2011. After basic training he was stationed in Vicenza, Italy with the 173rd Airborne Brigade. He deployed to Afghanistan in 2012 and after witnessing horrible events returned home in 2013 with a different perspective on life and a shifted mindset that has molded his and our families lives. But those experiences have allowed him to deeper understand Grandpa Billy’s advice and for that advice to run thick in his veins and deep in his heart- live it up. LIVE, be alive.
As humans we are always seeking challenges in some way, without them we become complacent and bored. Without challenges we may develop anxieties and stress, and you can never pinpoint the cause, but it is that we are too complacent, too comfortable.
When I was in high school I began running with my dad regularly. I developed this love for plugging my headphones in, seeing how far I could go, and pushing through when it was hard. I loved running west, staring at the mountains, getting to the top of the climbs and taking a huge exhale in pride. At that age, I never understood how important those mental and physical challenges and emotions were in developing character and mindset. I was choosing to challenge myself solely to better myself, knowing how hard it was, but afterwards felt mentally and emotionally cleansed, so strong, so proud.
This past September after a long day of hunting, I began digging deep on what draws me to hunting, what it means to me and my life. I began connecting the dots between the challenges of hunting and the correlation of confidence and growth. When Nolan and I approach camp on the first day of hunting I have so much nervous energy yet I have grown to feel the excitement of growth. When I began hunting years ago, all I felt was fear of the unknown, of being vulnerable, of feeling inexperienced and not confident in my abilities to be a savage. But as I reflected, NOW I feel confident. I know I have trained and grown my fitness to be the strongest I’ve ever been. Over the years I have let go of fear controlling me in the backcountry. Nolan told me once, “Anxiety and fear are different. Anxiety is fearing something before it happens. Fear is a reaction to something that’s actually happened. Control your anxiety, only fear if you actually have something to fear.” And that is what I have taught myself to do through these hunts, which has become the greatest accomplishment of my life thus far. The ability to be on the journey of working on every fear, strength, and attribute or flaw of yourself through the most mentally and physically challenging experiences is incredible and so rewarding.
The challenges we have experienced throughout the hunt have provided us experiences that will shape me and the way I teach my children, forever. Experiencing the complete exhaustion and ultimate defeat of the lack of success. Of learning to extract every bit of energy, of positivity, of hope, of strength in your body and telling yourself to keep going. That is living- you are alive, living in the moment. And that is what I am meant to teach my children, to feel alive. To recognize the extreme highs and lows and be able to manage those- mentally and physically. To work every single day to prepare yourself for any challenge that comes your way. To develop the confidence in yourself that YOU CAN DO IT.
Our belief is this- what we do, our kids can do. We hunt, we fish, we climb mountains...together. Our lessons are theirs, and they teach us an even deeper meaning. We want them to experience the energy, the emotions, the test of physical and mental strength and to learn the benefits of these experiences.
LIU mindset is this- you are given the gift of life. It is in your hands, you are in control. It is up to you to learn what fuels you spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally in order to live fully. It is up to you to not fall into complacency and comfortability, we weren’t meant to be that way. To learn that small successes lead to big successes. It is in the complete defeat and failures that you feel the most alive and grow. The future is ours/yours go and get it.
So, go live it up. Live YOUR life, live alive.