Recently I listened to a member of my family talk about an interesting number, 86,400. They began with the idea of having a bank account set up by someone else in your name, in this account every morning there is $86,400. The same amount is there at the start of each new day, but what you don’t use is no longer yours to spend, no rollover like your old cell plan, and no promise it will continue the next day. So if this was the case what would you do? Well the common answer is “spend every bit of it you could, why let something free go to waste?!” Well if you and this number didn’t already make a connection, that’s how many seconds are in every day. Using the same idea “Why let something free go to waste?!” seems a little different when you a talk time instead of money. Our time is limited every day, you never know when the next second won’t come, and you don’t get to reuse any that you let slip away…..
This story really struck me oddly since I want to spend my life hunting. I’d love to have my name in the industry but I’m not in it to get sponsored, that’s not my main motivation. I love the challenge, the solitude, the “me vs. nature” feel of it and the chance to provide for myself. I always say I live to be in the wilderness with a bow in my hand. The question is am I truly doing so? Am I using as much of my 86,400 seconds to better myself as a hunter as I say I do?? Of course you have things like family, friends, a job, and sleep that are going to take up time in life but what you do with free time is what really seems to define you….
While pondering all of the seconds of my life I’ve instilled what I’m beginning to consider the Cameron Hanes method, ya the guy that everyone knows. He is the crazy guy that works out and runs a lot to be a better back country hunter. The fact of the matter is that it works! Love him, hate him, or wish you were him but when it comes down to filling tags the amount of time he puts in creates results. When I spend precious seconds of my life reading, I read something that helps me learn more about hunting, when I’m watching TV (a rare past time for me) I work out while watching, these small multi tasks allow me to try to better myself for the mountains. That’s the pro of seconds over money is you can spend your time doing multiple things at once. Speaking of reading I’ve recently delved into “Life at Full Draw”, a book about Chuck Adams.
If you haven’t read this book I would suggest hunting it down and giving it a read. I’m only about a third of the way into it but it has really opened my eyes to a lot of things. He talks of the amount of dedication he put into being where he was at life, the amount of writing he did on top of his hunting. Chuck put off things in life that most of us stress over, he set goals, planned his attack and then completed them. “No desire to get married or have kids”, although he later found his wife in an archery range, some of the things that people focus so much on were just trivial items in the way of his hunting career. He talks about what it took to complete the grand slam, and if you thought it was an easy feat for someone in the industry you are off! Chuck didn’t have the money for the grand slam, much like myself, yet it is amazing to see the way he approached it. He even went as far as to take out loans to finish a few of those tags. He completed his grand slam just 24 days before I was born, I can’t help but think that I was born into an epic month for the bowhunting world and I should keep the tradition going!! I now understand the amount of work that it could take and the focus required…..
There truly isn’t any time to waste…..
Hunting Humbly,
AMP
AMPED ARCHER 
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