One of my least favorite things to do at work is our annual performance goals. Every day I go to work, I do my best and I work hard. I strive to do my job to the best of my ability. Part of me argues that should be enough, but I can also see the value in setting goals. It gives you a target to shoot for, and on any journey, you need at least two of the following three things: a starting point, a direction, and a destination. With any two of the three, you can derive the third. (I find it disturbing when I can talk myself into doing things I hate because it is good for me. Tea and cookies would be so much more fun.)
One of my favorite sources of information for bushcraft, Paul Kirtley (@pkirt), posted about joining the route to mastery and one of his suggestions was setting positive constraints for yourself when it comes to bushcraft. Essentially, setting goals. (I think he's in cahoots with our HR department. It's a conspiracy to get me to write the damned things. Thank goodness he didn't start in on SMART goals...) He threw out the added challenge of putting your goals out in public so that if you blow it, everyone will know. He said it much nicer than that, but he end result is the same.
I started off learning more about prepping/bushcraft/survival with the two vague goals: getting back to nature and learning. I'm a huge fan of knowledge for knowledge's sake. In the case of skills like fire making or identifying edible plants, books and blogs aren't enough. That was apparent to me about five pages into one of my books, so I found a class on wild edibles. I'm kinda hooked now. More learning. I wants it. Practice. I needs it.
(I have the misfortune of living in a condo in a suburb of Washington, DC, with a homeowners' association that objects to me starting fires on my patio. I think they're worried I'll set the golf course ablaze. Practice is a challenge.)
The trick is there are so many paths on the journey. Knife skills, shelter making, plants, natural navigation, and on and on. I can't run blindly down all of them, so I should probably pick a trail to start with. I thought about it a while and I need all of the basics to support honing individual skills. It doesn't do me any good to know all the edible plants in the woods if I freeze to death because I can't start a fire.
So, goal number one: Learn the bushcraft basics. Learn how to start a fire, build a rudimentary shelter, find my way out of a paper bag, improve my knife skills.
After that, I really need something to focus on. With such a wide array of topics to choose from, I thought it would be good to start with something for which I already have an affinity.
Goal number two: Hone my edible plant knowledge. This one dovetails with one of my existing hobbies. I love plants. I raise herbs, orchids, and African violets and if I could, I'd have a snake-free jungle in my house. Learning more about the flora around me is fun and I'm always looking for new plants to cook with. (Homeowners won't let me have a garden on my patio either.)
I have a third big goal, but I'm not quite ready to put that one out there, partially because it is heavily dependent on my soon-to-be-a-college-graduate daughter not getting more expensive, and partially due to security reasons. A girl can't give away all her secrets.
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