Pleased New 12 months! In case you’re a subscriber to AJ in print, you might need learn my intro within the present problem in regards to the nature of laborious issues. Final fall, after I first began interested by making 2026 the 12 months of Doing Exhausting Issues, I concocted an inventory of all of the laborious issues I might try. Initially, there could be a serious laborious factor each month, however practicality bought the higher of me and I scaled it again. Truncated, it included:
As I thought of every of the gadgets on my record, I bought actually excited. However then I made an inventory of all of the issues I’m already dedicated to do in 2026, and actuality hit:
Sure, sure, and sure. All the above. However largely, I would like extra time outdoors, connecting with and studying extra about nature. So, after a variety of thought, I’ve decided my laborious factor for 2026 can be sleeping outdoors not less than 100 nights. My spouse factors out that is extra enjoyable than laborious, and I agree. A few of you most likely do that yearly. However my considering is that 100 nights can be a stretch. It can require dedication and focus all 12 months lengthy. It may well and can embrace seeing new locations and climbing peaks and choosing up trash. And it doesn’t preclude me from embracing my preliminary record; certainly, within the final month I’ve gone on hikes with two new buddies.
The toughest factor, I consider, shouldn’t be whether or not you push on whenever you really feel like quitting. It’s overcoming inertia and beginning within the first place. My hope in writing about laborious issues, and in speaking about my progress because the 12 months unfolds, is that it’ll encourage you to think about your truest objectives, goals, needs, and to commit your self to what’s most necessary. So far as I do know, we solely get one go-round, not less than in these our bodies, and there’s no time like now to benefit from it. So let’s go do our laborious issues.
