The #1 Habit of Top Whitetail Hunters

Hi I’m Adam Lewis and welcome to Deer IQ and our High IQ TOPIC series. This is different than our normal, curriculum podcast episodes, and are stand alone topics that go along with our High IQ videos on YouTube. They are shorter, and supplement our normal podcast in this way with direct tactics to help up your deer hunting game. In this High IQ episode we’re going to look at what I feel is the #1 habit of top whitetail hunters - guys that just seem to be on a different level, and 4 things it will take for you to develop this same habit. Before we do, a couple things real quick, especially if you’re new here.

  1. First, you’ll notice we have an IQ ranking system where beginner is 1-IQ, Intermediate is 5-IQ, and 10-IQ is our advanced content. This is true for our podcast, as well as our blogs and videos, so you can best get content to meet you where you're at. This is a 1-iQ video, but I’m pretty sure everyone will get something out of it. 
  2. Second, I invite you to subscribe, rate this podcast, and check out all our other content -  videos and blog. Deer IQ is designed to be different, to be more educational, engaging and challenging, in short to help us all reach what we want - to become truly greater deer hunters. We even have a FREE journal that goes along with our curriculum based podcast. If you take deer hunting seriously, and really want to fast track your growth, I invite you to check that out. 
  3. And, stay to the end because I have a few takeaways and challenges for you that you’ll really benefit from - you won’t want to miss that.  

Alright, now lets get to the #1 habit. 

     If you interviewed 100 of the best whitetail hunters, you’d probably get 100 different answers. “What do you contribute your success to?” Although the answers may vary, from my experience, and observing some of these hunters over the years, I’ve noticed ONE thing that takes hunters to the next level the quickest: are you ready.. Its actually what I refer to as journaling. Whether it be an actual paper journal where they document the ups and downs and lessons learned, a blog where they share these things (many of these top hunters actually write for magazines), or a youtube channel where they do the same, those that learn best and quickest are the ones that gain success the fastest. Developing a habit that forces you to think through the why’s, what’s, and how’s of hunting is essential to accomplish this, and some form of in depth, reflective journaling does this better than anything I know.

So, how can you develop and hone this habit to get their results?  Like I said, this could be any of the above I mentioned or a combination of them (journal, blog, youtube, etc.). For me it started with a YouTube channel and a blog years ago. For me this has definitely been the biggest accelerator of growth, and as a side benefit has led to dozens of articles published in regional and national magazines.  It doesn’t really matter what method you choose, but a few basics must be present to actually get what you want from it. Here they are.

  1. Intention: If your intention is to be cool and get popular (like by making a popular YouTube channel), then you will most likely fail, or get much less from it. Your goal has to be for reflecting, learning, and growing. Maybe you share this with others, or maybe you don’t. Either way doesn’t matter as long as your focus is on the right things. However, if you do decide to go public, this will help with #2.
  2. Dedication: For anything to be of worth you’ve got to stick with it for a long time. Habits take 30-60 days to develop, so you’ve got to keep with it at least that long. However, that really isn’t long enough. You get out what you put in as they say, and that applies here as well. The best thing is to journal once for every day that you hunt. This will develop the habit quickly (one season possibly), and make you identify things you learned before they vanish into thin air (which is what will happen if you do not think about a hunt, what happened, why it happened, and do this shortly afterward). This will explode your learning and growth curve, but if you don’t, you’ll probably be doomed to make the same mistakes again.  If you decide to go public with a blog or YouTube channel, as you grow subscribers, these people will keep you accountable to keep at it (a great benefit of going public). Yes, you’ll have the haters, but you will have to be consistent to produce content and it also forces you to really think it through to make sure it is high-quality This is a win/win for you and your hunting goals. 

BREAK: Like this episode so far? If you do I invite you to hit the like button, rate our podcast channel, and maybe share it with a buddy who may benefit. Also, do you know your Deer IQ? do you think you’re “deer smart?”.. Why don’t you take our Deer IQ test and find out. It’s fun and easy, and is linked below - check it out. Ok, now back to number 3!

  1. The Right Question: To get the right answers, you have to ask the right questions. When journaling, the #1 question I ask is WHY? Why did the deer do this or that? Why were they here and not there? Why didn’t I have success? Why did I… and so on.  Oh, and one non - “why” question: what should I have done differently? If you can fully answer these questions (being 100% honest with yourself and your fragile ego), and are dedicated to finding the answers, then your eyes will start to be opened to things you never saw before, and your expertise will skyrocket. You’ll learn what you never did before,  this will translate into what you do in the field, and this will cause more success. And, don’t just ask yourself. If you can’t figure it out, reach out to others you respect as top hunters and get help with your answers there. 
  2. Detail: When you answer these questions, make sure you put effort and thought into them. Don’t treat it like a highschool english assignment you care nothing about. Put your heart and soul into it and you’ll be rewarded. If you’re going to do it, do it right. And to do it right means putting detail into your answers. Any observation, thought, or further question is valid and will help lead to answers. There should be no throw away hunts that you don’t learn something from. Sometimes the answers do not come right away, but after an accumulation of journaling for weeks or years. I guarantee you one thing - even if some pieces take years to fit together into an “aha” moment, it will be much quicker than if you never journaled at all. 

Hard work, yes, but if you will commit to journal about your whitetail hunting experiences, the results in the field will be very worth it. 

So, here are your High IQ TAKEAWAYS AND CHALLENGES:

  1. Download the FREE Deer IQ Journal that steps you through our podcast & curriculum “to be a greater hunter” below. It’s just for this type of thing and will really help. 
  2. Think about a hunt this past year (success or failure) and journal about WHY it turned out the way it did. What can you learn from this for the future? 

  4. Signup for our newsletter so you don’t miss any great and new Deer IQ content, and consider sharing it with a buddy to help grow our channel, that really helps. And I’ll See you on the next Deer IQ High IQ Topic episode!