Camping Builds Good Character Traits.

Core Points:

• Camping builds resilience by requiring adaptation to unpredictable conditions like bad weather.
• Patience is enhanced through camping due to the slower pace and effort required for basic tasks, contrasting with instant gratification.
• Resourcefulness grows as campers improvise solutions when facing unexpected challenges or equipment failures.
• Teamwork improves via shared responsibilities in camp setup, cooking, and navigation, promoting collective problem-solving.
• Self-reliance develops as individuals learn to handle personal safety, navigation, and cooking independently in unfamiliar environments.
• Gratitude is fostered by appreciating essentials like clean water and shelter, often taken for granted in daily life.

Go camping, you'll be a better person for it.

Transcript

00:00 - 00:04
Hello and good day, eh? Welcome to the Super Good Camping Podcast. My name is Pamela.

00:04 - 00:04
I'm Tim.

00:04 - 00:09
We are from supergoodcamping.com we're here because we're on a mission to inspire other people

00:09 - 00:13
to get outside and enjoy camping adventures such as we have as a family today.

00:13 - 00:18
We want to talk a little bit about the character traits that camping can enhance.

00:18 - 00:22
So just in case there's not enough allure yet for you to go camping, then these are some of

00:22 - 00:25
the character traits that might help you in your everyday life.

00:25 - 00:28
Things that make you good and people that you're with good.

00:28 - 00:31
It doesn't mean just making you a character. Tim's a character.

00:31 - 00:34
But outside of that, we're also building character.

00:34 - 00:35
I'm unique.

00:37 - 00:40
So one of the key character traits that you can develop while you're camping is resilience,

00:41 - 00:45
which is interesting because again, we are freshly back from the Hamilton Outdoor Adventure

00:45 - 00:51
Expo, and we watched Tori Baird do her presentation, and that was kind of.

00:51 - 00:56
Her topic was building resilience through camping. And I mean, her.

00:56 - 01:02
Her exploits are certainly far exceed ours, but that certainly their.

01:02 - 01:08
The trip that they described, she described was really quite legendary.

01:09 - 01:13
That would really build some resilience based on some of the things that she had to overcome.

01:13 - 01:18
But yeah, so facing and overcoming challenges like bad weather or encountering wildlife unexpectedly

01:18 - 01:25
or some physical discomfort, sleeping on a hard ground air mattress that has a hole in it, things

01:25 - 01:31
like that can enhance your just ability to adapt to those kind of difficulties and enduring.

01:31 - 01:35
Enduring those kind of unpredictable conditions.

01:35 - 01:45
It feels like that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Yeah. Or makes you crippled. Just saying. Patience.

01:45 - 01:51
So doing activities like fishing, hiking, even. Even the. Going through the.

01:51 - 01:56
The process of setting up camp, you know, you become kind of smaller.

01:56 - 01:58
You know, you're more attuned to things around you.

01:58 - 02:03
But, but because, because things take longer in the backcountry, and they do every day.

02:03 - 02:07
You're, you know, it's not like you come home, open the door, and you're home.

02:07 - 02:15
It's like, no, you come to a spot, you put your tent out, you set it up, you, you know, do a tarp. You.

02:15 - 02:16
You can't just turn the oven on.

02:16 - 02:19
You're making a fire, you're doing those sort of things.

02:19 - 02:26
So you fairly quickly learn to have patience and just accept things as they. As they are.

02:27 - 02:31
Well, that. And, you know, we're all used to the instant gratification of our, of our phones

02:31 - 02:33
and our social media and whatnot.

02:33 - 02:36
And it's like you can't get the Instant gratification.

02:36 - 02:41
When you're out in the backcountry, it's going to take you four hours to get to your campsite.

02:41 - 02:42
It's going to take you four hours.

02:42 - 02:46
You're not going to get there in a click or a like.

02:46 - 02:50
Unlike people like, you know, Ben and Adam from Paddleheads, you're not going to get the instant

02:51 - 02:54
gratification of one cast caught a fish. At least I'm not.

02:55 - 03:00
So resourcefulness, that's another thing that you may learn and learning how to MacGyver things.

03:00 - 03:04
If you get the MacGyver reference, it's.

03:04 - 03:05
For those of you of a certain age.

03:05 - 03:11
Exactly. So being able to problem solve things don't always go as you expect.

03:11 - 03:15
You forgot to bring something you, something broke while you're out there.

03:15 - 03:20
And so then you have to kind of figure out some way to adapt to the situation.

03:20 - 03:25
Improvise, use what you've got handy, make use of something that you didn't expect to have to

03:25 - 03:29
use, whatever, or make sure that you've also brought back up things.

03:29 - 03:31
Yeah, that's always a tough balance.

03:31 - 03:33
It's like, how much do I want my pack to weigh?

03:34 - 03:37
But you know, teamwork and cooperation.

03:37 - 03:47
So working with others to, to set up camp to cook, navigate all good things and paddle a canoe together. Yeah.

03:47 - 03:52
For those of you who aren't solo camping, that's all you know, you improve that sort of thing

03:52 - 03:57
through, through sharing responsibilities and collective problem solving.

03:57 - 04:05
You know, there's, I guarantee you, I don't care how extensive your list is, how long you prep,

04:05 - 04:12
something's either going to not make it in, into your camping camping experience or something's

04:12 - 04:14
going to break or not.

04:15 - 04:21
You're going to get there and find out that it can't apply, doesn't function as expected, or

04:21 - 04:25
you don't have the trees to do the barrel hang or whatever.

04:25 - 04:28
So then that becomes like, what do I do?

04:28 - 04:29
How do I solve this problem?

04:29 - 04:32
Well, if there's more than one of you. Collective problem solving.

04:32 - 04:34
Because people come at things from a different perspective. So.

04:34 - 04:38
So that's always a, that's always a good one. Learn to work together.

04:38 - 04:44
Yep. And then don't work together if you're solo camping because you're gonna have to figure it out yourself, which.

04:44 - 04:48
So self reliance is one of those character traits you might build just learning to take care

04:48 - 04:54
of yourself when you're in an unfamiliar or unpredictable kind of environment where you just

04:54 - 05:00
don't know how necessarily things are going to go and that you can gain those kind of skills

05:00 - 05:05
with cooking for yourself, navigating for yourself, looking after your personal safety.

05:05 - 05:10
If you get hurt, you're gonna have to figure out some way to get yourself functional so you can get out.

05:10 - 05:11
Functional.

05:11 - 05:12
Functional.

05:12 - 05:19
Gratitude, you know, appreciating things like, like clean water, food, warmth, shelter.

05:19 - 05:21
Things we take for granted every day.

05:21 - 05:29
Every day I go to the fridge, my, I'm inside, I don't have rain on my head, I'm warm, you know,

05:29 - 05:31
the furnace is on, turn on the.

05:31 - 05:34
Tap, the water comes out, water comes out, have a shower.

05:34 - 05:34
Yep.

05:34 - 05:35
Get clean.

05:35 - 05:39
And this ties somewhat in with the patients because you know your grab.

05:39 - 05:41
However you choose to filter your water.

05:41 - 05:44
We use, we use a platypus system, a gravity feed system.

05:45 - 05:50
It still takes a bit of time to go fill up that thing, hang it off of a tree, do whatever.

05:51 - 05:58
I know, I know for a fact, speaking personally, the, like the clean water and, and shelter because

05:58 - 06:01
it takes, because it takes effort to make it happen in the back country.

06:01 - 06:04
I am very appreciative of it when we get home.

06:04 - 06:08
And then it just also nurtures gratitude for nature itself.

06:08 - 06:13
I mean the beauty of your surroundings and appreciation for, for what we have.

06:13 - 06:16
Especially in this country where there's so much beauty.

06:16 - 06:18
Yeah, we're, we're pretty lucky campers.

06:21 - 06:26
Perseverance. So just as Tim's mentioned, things don't always go as planned.

06:26 - 06:31
Things sometimes aren't with you that need to be with you and just having to get through.

06:32 - 06:37
Sometimes it's a really difficult hike, sometimes it's a difficult paddle, sometimes it's wind,

06:38 - 06:45
sometimes it's headwind and always headwind or never, never behind you. Difficult portage.

06:45 - 06:50
Sometimes you're tired, sometimes you got blisters, sometimes you're wet, sometimes you're cold.

06:50 - 06:52
So just being able to push through all those things.

06:52 - 06:59
And again just kind of coming back to Tori Baird' she and, and her husband Jim really they,

06:59 - 07:02
she talked about a hike that they did through Jasper national park.

07:02 - 07:06
And just even the first day they were questioning like have we got ourselves in over our heads?

07:06 - 07:08
Are we going to be able to do this?

07:08 - 07:14
But they persevered, got through the, the entire eight day plan and got to where they wanted to go.

07:14 - 07:16
Yeah, that was a heck like man.

07:16 - 07:22
Yes. So yeah, those are the kind of trait, character traits you can develop through camping. Camping.

07:23 - 07:30
Resilience, patience, resourcefulness, teamwork, Coop, self reliance, gratitude, perseverance.

07:30 - 07:32
These can help you in your day to day life.

07:32 - 07:37
Just teamwork and patience help to improve your interactions with your friends, your families and your co workers.

07:37 - 07:43
Helps to improve trust cooperation and strengthens bonds between you. In emergencies.

07:43 - 07:49
You can be more resourceful, more self reliant. Something goes downhill unexpectedly.

07:49 - 07:55
And for just personal growth, being able to nurture gratitude and perseverance through difficulties

07:55 - 07:57
enhance your mental well being and your motivation.

07:57 - 08:00
So camping is more than just an outdoor activity.

08:00 - 08:05
It nurtures essential character traits that can benefit you in your day to day life.

08:05 - 08:06
Absolutely.

08:06 - 08:08
So that's it for us for today.

08:09 - 08:10
Please do tune in again soon.

08:10 - 08:11
We will talk to you.

08:11 - 08:19
If you would like to talk to us, please do email us@hiupergoodcamping.com that's hiupergoodcamping.com

08:19 - 08:22
and we are on all the social media, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram.

08:23 - 08:24
We are on Blue Sky.

08:24 - 08:29
If you would like to follow us on Blue sky and please do like or subscribe to us on YouTube

08:30 - 08:32
and we'll talk to you again soon. Bye.