I was shivering, huddled behind a boulder on South Arapahoe peak, watching the last light fade from the sky. The peanut butter bar I was choking down stuck to the roof of my mouth. Downtown Boulder lit up miles beneath us. Nate and I looked at each other and shook our heads, wondering what we got ourselves into. It was Tuesday night and we were at 13,500 feet elevation, with six miles and 3,000 vertical feet between us and my truck. It was cold enough to see my breath, and we both wondered why we thought this was a good idea.
The goal for our adventure up into the mountains that night was to shake off the weekly routine. The days slip away too easily. Wake up, walk the dog, feed the kids, make coffee, work, run errands, maybe the grocery, and before you know it its 10pm and you don’t even have time for a beer. When you’re busy the easiest item to leave off the list is exercise and outdoor time. But we know this time is what can anchor us, shed the anxiety of the day, and keep us happy. So what do we do?
We get disciplined. We get creative. We figure out how to make it work and most importantly how to make it fun. The world isn’t going to slow down for us. A phase becomes a lifestyle if you aren’t careful. If you want an active lifestyle then you have to live it. But a lot of times it can be really damn hard to hold to it. So I want to provide some practical tips for how you can get outside more, and also some inspiration to help you get excited about it.
This is the 9-to-5ers guide to getting outside.
Let’s start by defining what stops us from getting outside.
The reasons you don’t get outside
- Work
- Weather
- You scrolled on your phone for what you thought was 10 minutes but it was actually 45.
- Kids need help with math homework (and you suck at math)
- Date night
- You opened the fridge and there was a beer there
- New bachelor in paradise episode just dropped (or more realistically… the newest episode of The Fifty just dropped)
- You just aren’t feeling it that day
There will always be something stopping you, and the simple answer we tell ourselves every day is to be more disciplined. But we can tell ourselves to get outside, that outdoor time is good for us, that we love it, and still not get out. So while discipline will always remain the best path forward, my hope here is to help you manufacture discipline or find ways to make it easier on yourself. I still fail all the time, but I’ve found a few strategies along the way that help me get out more even when my discipline is lacking.
How to get outside more often
Let’s quickly define getting outside. For the purposes of this article I’m going to define getting outside as adventure. We’re not talking about squeezing a quick 30 minute jog in during your lunch break to get some exercise. We’re talking about bringing more excitement into your day to day life, how to make the most of your weekends, how to have more ‘I’m glad I did this’ moments on a weekly basis. This could be getting out climbing, a morning backcountry ski before work, or as I tried this year a ridgeline scramble racing the sun on a Tuesday night.
Here’s the path to getting outside more often.
- Define your adventure
- Create your go list
- Get a crew together
- Set a consistent date
- Challenge yourself
1. Define your adventure
This is the fun part where people typically don’t get creative enough. What type of shenanigans can you get yourself into? Take an after work hike and add something different to it.
For the Tuesday night adventure I mentioned above, we took a route we both wanted to do and added two flavors. First, can we do it after work on a weeknight instead of waiting for the weekend? Second, can we hit it from an alternate route we’d never tried before?
Shake things up. Add a meaningless but hilarious requirement like dressing up goofily or taking a photo every mile or bringing coffee to drink at the summit. Run 5 miles and bring a fishing rod and you can’t finish the run until you catch a fish. Get weird with it. In my experience, it’s easy to get people on board when you have an off-kilter idea, and they make for the best memories.
Who knows, you may find your new thing. Worst case, you had some fun.
2. Create your go list
Once you’ve got some ideas, create a prioritized list of adventures you want to hit. Why do this? One of the biggest blockers in getting outside is deciding where to go. This has blocked me from many last minute trips and adventures. Not having a few quick ideas you’re excited about to choose from is a quick way to choose to stay home instead.
The clock hits 5pm on a Wednesday. You should be able to look at this list, find something, maybe shoot off a text inviting a friend, and get out the door.
Separating your list by things you can do after work and weekend adventures is helpful, since you want to always have an idea at hand no matter the day or time.
3. Get a crew together
For both memories and accountability, it’s always fun to have some friends alongside you. Rally the troops for your shenanigans, maybe you’ll find a consistent group who wants to get out with you.
Set your intention with your friends. Let them know you want to get out more, you have these 7 ideas, and ask if they want to hit one this week. It’s harder to stay at home when someone is waiting for you to arrive.
4. Set a consistent date
One of my favorite weekly events back when I lived in Boulder was Tuesday Green with a couple buddies. We’d wake up early before work and summit Green Mountain in Boulder every Tuesday like clockwork. It became a fun tradition, a great way to see my friends no matter what was going on, and a heck of a sunrise workout (Green Mountain was around 5 miles and over 2,000 feet of gain).
Beyond weekly adventures, just set a weekly exercise day with your friends.
I’m sure you can relate: As we get older you see your friends less and less. You’ll suddenly go a month without seeing folks you used to see multiple times a week, even if you live in the same town. A weekly routine like this is a great forcing function to see your friends when it would otherwise not happen.
An ulterior motive for setting up adventures like this is to see friends more often as we all get busier. That’s the reality, and a secondary benefit of being the one to coordinate outdoor activities.
5. Challenge yourself
My failed Arapahoe Traverse attempt with Nate was partially memorable because of the failure. We were out of our depth for what we were attempting and when. We were out past dark during the rut, having run into a moose not five minutes after beginning. There was a bit of fear and unknown due to the time of day and the new route.
All that elevated the experience.
Don’t be afraid to push the envelope on your list of adventures. Bring a friend if it’s truly dangerous. Make a plan. But getting out of your depth holds even more weight when its on a random Tuesday night and you wonder what the hell you’re doing.
Use our printer-friendly checklist as a shopping list or packing list for your next camping trip.
Remember: This is your life
Not to get overly philosophical (I tend to do that), but it’s easy to get whisked away in the routine of work and adult responsibilities. Every year goes by faster than the last and before you know it another summer is gone and you didn’t do the things you wanted to do, didn’t enjoy it to your fullest.
My goal here is to help you prevent that. Lower the activation energy needed to get outside and go do it. Make yourself a promise to get out on 3 adventures next month, whether they are weekday or weekend.
Get into some random, hilarious, slightly dangerous mis-adventures this year. For the hell of it. Your life will be richer for it.
There are all sorts of side benefits I’ve mentioned that are worth talking about. You’ll be a more interesting person if you’re the one with ideas up your sleeve, if you’re the one always doing something exciting. You’ll have more stories to tell, more experiences shared, more excitement in your life. All that is worth pursuing, and I think the effort required is well worth the payoff.
Send me your tales of misadventure
If you get inspired from this post and take action, email me your trip report to [email protected]. Send me a photo and description of your adventure, I’d love to hear about it (and steal some inspiration for my own list). I’ll add a list of Lore reader adventures to the bottom of this post for some inspiration for the rest of us.
Here are a couple photos from our Arapahoe Traverse mis-adventure. Including Nate making his way up the tundra with snow bearing down on us, Nate enjoying last light on South Arapahoe, and me running in the alpine when the sun finally came out.
Alex Eaton
I'm Alex, the founder of Lore. My life outside started with camping trips in southern Indiana as a kid, and has taken me across the world. My goal is to give you the tools and confidence you need to pursue the outdoor life you want.
Use our printer-friendly checklist as a shopping list or packing list for your next camping trip.