“Did you get everything you wanted for Christmas?” Do you remember being asked this as a kid? I do. For me it provided a mixed bag of feelings and emotions. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up, but I distinctly remember my parents doing everything they could to provide for my sister and […]
Be more thankful everyday ~ and improve your life! Have you ever noticed that for most people, the only day every year we formally say, or process mentally, what we are grateful/thankful for is Thanksgiving? We all sit around a fat turkey on the dining room table, surrounded by relatives we seldom see, some easy […]
Delayed gratification and the millennial generation It was on last year’s Allagash Wilderness Waterway trip that I compiled my thoughts on delayed gratification and its interplay with young men, and the generation we are currently serving in general. The discussion: “It’s that guy from that movie… You know…. The one with that hot chick in […]
How to set goals you will actually accomplish At Northwoods Ranch & Retreat, we teach our students how to effectively set goals. Goal setting seems to have become a lost art. When you talk to most young men about what goal setting means to them they often have difficulty explaining it, and believe it is […]
A road map to where you are in recovery As discussed in our previous blog, the stages of recovery refers to a guideline that references where an individual is in terms of their recovery. Although we try not to think of things in black and white, this terminology gives us a quick look at what a […]
Why transitioning is often the most important step First a brief explanation of the stages of recovery we often refer to when talking about long-term change. This applies to all addictions as well as general behavior changes. Pre-contemplation stage: A person does not yet believe they have a problem, or they see their behavior as […]
Improvise, adapt, overcome… Accepting some failure Improvise, adapt, overcome… Words I try to live by So this gardening season has been absolutely terrible. We have had multiple crop failures, ultimately things that we are supposed to demonstrate proper techniques with, and count on for our influx of fresh fruits and vegetables for the summer months, […]
Coping skills versus distraction techniques We teach classes on both distraction techniques and coping skills, and for some of our young men, include them as part of their goals and objectives in relation to the things they are trying to improve upon. So what is the difference between the two? I always explain the difference […]
Drawbacks of doing the bare minimum In the Marine Corps we had a saying “That 10%”, what we were referencing was the fact that seemingly no matter where you go in our society (including the Marine Corps sadly) there are 10% of people that seem to always do the bare minimum, and will allow […]
Warrior training and untapped skills meet at dawn This week we focused on utilizing untapped skills and ingenuity. It is amazing to watch these young men as they develop the life skills and confidence needed for success. We began our week by initiating our new warrior training, each morning we wake and begin the […]