Survival Skills

I've gained around 18 pounds over the past year, and I've been thinking I need a new motivation to keep in shape.

In addition to what I'm calling a direct incentive, which is a plan to buy myself awesome custom jeans as soon as I maintain my target weight for four weeks, I had another idea.

I was thinking about all the physical activities I've thought about doing, but never tried before, I came up with the following list of what I'm calling "Survival Skills". My idea is to spend a day to a couple of weeks focusing on doing each of these things this year. Some of them I'll need to take some basic instruction, some I just need to do and/or practice. They don't all require athleticism, but they are all physical activities that I imagine I will enjoy more if I'm fit, and which will help keep me experiencing my body, which is the opposite of how I gained weight (zoning out of "the now" with food and inactivity).

Archery
Shooting
Basic self defense
Martial art
Equestrian
CPR & First Aid
Geocache/orienteering
Rock climbing
Sailing
Singing/Guitar

Part of the reason I haven't tried some of these things, or continued with some of the ones I have tried and even practiced diligently in the past, is that I felt a phantom of obligation along with the activities that seem like "hobbies" or "avocations", something you should do for a long time, or practice daily, so I just never got going. I'm eliminating that inertia with the survival skills list by deciding to only dip my toes in to each one once a year. If this works out well, I'll do it again in 2011, 2012, etc. I'l have a nice little repertoire of skills getting renewed in a yearly cycle, any one of which I can pursue more deeply or not. Either way, I'll get to try lots of things, and be all well-rounded and outdoorsey.

And yes, of course, this list will help me survive the monetary crash end-times. Or the nuclear armageddon. Or the zombie-pocalypse. (The singing is for around the fire at night. And 'cause zombies hate guitars).