This is the fifth post in our summer series "Lessons Learned in the Woods." Find the intro here. Give me a shout if you’ve ever caught yourself mindlessly scrolling through social media, standing up in the middle of the living room, when you’ve got a million other things to do and you can’t believe where the last hour went. The first step towards taking control of your smartphone is admitting that it already controls you. A few weeks ago I heard an interview that blew my mind. Tristan Harris, founder of Time Well Spent introduced me to the Attention Economy. Suddenly...

This is the third in our summer series: Life Lessons Learned in the Woods. I realize this is mostly a story about flying, which isn’t exactly the wilderness, but wilderness guiding experience applies. You'll see, I promise. Enjoy! When I fastened my safety belt at the beginning of the flight, I had no idea how different those words would sound at 30,000 feet. We took off under clear skies. Almost a year prior I had experienced long delays and an unexpected overnight layover due to thunderstorms. I was considering myself grateful for the lack of extreme weather. But it was...

  This is the third post in our summer series "Lessons Learned in the Woods." Find the intro here. Putting ourselves at risk is not something we usually do on purpose. Risk comes hand in hand with uncertainty, neither of which are friends with modern culture. With smartphones and google ever at our fingertips, we're becoming increasingly uncomfortable with both. Yet we crave adventure! What makes an adventure an adventure? For me, it’s the thrill of new experiences, the curiosity of discovering the unknown, the challenge of problem solving with minimal resources. That means risk. And uncertainty. We learn most when...