Jeff Campbell skins towards me on New Years Eve, a near perfect day to end 2010.

I cannot begin to express how good of a year 2010 has been to me.  I feel like I am living in a dream, a dream that has taken time to manifest itself over the years but is finally becoming a reality.  Every once in a while this thought hits me like a brick and I am left utterly speechless.  Who knows how long this wave will last, maybe in 5 years I will be back working sales or retail, but for know I am trying my best to enjoy the ride.

2010 was filled with amazing trips all over the Western United States and Canada with people I have come to really admire and love.  Off the top of my head some adventure highlights include climbing up Half Dome in a day with Nate Farr, running and biking around the Canadian Rockies in utter amazement with Bridget, skiing perfect powder with 7 great friends for a week up at the Fairy Meadows Hut, and climbing routes in Indian Creek, Yosemite and Squamish that only a few years ago I would have only dreamt of accomplishing.

These mantras were posted on the blog a little while ago, but after thinking over the previous 365 days it seems my heightened happiness can be traced back to these five mantras:

1.  Always have a dream.  Believe in it.  Believe in your ability to make it happen.

2.  Keep your passions alive.  For me, my love of adventure and people amongst it reminds me to breath deeply and puts many things into perspective.

3.  Set goals – even little goals are good and then reward yourself.  They will all lead up to you making your dream come true.

4.  Make decisions or they will be made for you.

5.  Do the “right thing”, whatever that may be for you.  You will love yourself more if you do.

A quote from Steve Casimiro as he reflected on 2010, well said and it expresses what it all ultimately comes down to.

“It is our nature to think we’ll live forever — our “endless numbered days” as Iron & Wine puts it. That indomitable hope is one of our great strengths, and I don’t spend my time in maudlin despair that I won’t actually live forever, nor am I trying to be a buzz kill for you. But an eye to the end is a strong motivator for the present, and that’s not such a bad thing. For most of my life, my priorities have revolved around fresh air, motion, and chasing snowflakes, singletrack, waves, and finding lines up rock. It’s no exaggeration to say that adventure saved me, and I have faith that the next year will be filled with unexpected delights in the outdoors. But as I think about how I’ll be spending my time, as I think about the will to survive and the things we give up to move forward, as I think about what they’ll say after I’m gone and what’s on my list, I’m driven by the knowledge that it isn’t what you pass through in life that matters, it’s what you pass on.”