With the dawning of a new year, it's time to re-evaluate your skills as a hunter. Here are 3 hunting resolutions for 2016 that will make 2016 your best hunting season ever.

[caption id="attachment_5859" align="alignnone" width="533"] The dawning of a new year brings new challenges. Follow these hunting resolutions to ensure you are up to the task.[/caption] In general staying motivated can be challenging at times. We get bogged down in our jobs, hobbies, relationships, and religious beliefs from time to time. Finding ways to keep the fire lit can be challenging. Staying motivated however is essential if we are to reach our potential in any of those things. For some hunting is more than a pastime, it truly becomes a way of life. Folks like this need to be performing at their top level in order to reach their hunting goals. If you are getting weighed down, or bowhunting has lost its luster, here are three hunting resolutions to refocus and rededicate yourself to the craft of hunting.

Become a Marksman

As bowhunters our success in the field, for both punching our tags and making ethical and clean killing shots, comes down to our accuracy with our weapons. Unlike gun hunters who use the shock of a bullet to kill and have some room for error, bow hunters must hit the mark every time in order to bring down an animal quickly even with razor sharp broadheads. To take the life of a living thing is a responsibility hunters should not take lightly, and we should do all we can to prepare for the moment of truth before it arrives. In order to prepare, we should shoot as much as we can and become ultra proficient with our equipment. Extend your range beyond where it has historically been to test your shooting ability. Long range shooting will magnify any errors you or your equipment have. Shoot more and your bow will almost become an extension of yourself. TIP: Shoot, shoot, shoot. Challenge yourself to extend your range.

Stay in Shape

Here is one that people make every year and fall off the wagon of pretty quickly, but staying is shape is an excellent hunting resolution for 2016. Staying in shape is easier for hunters to commit to for one reason; exercise has purpose. When you workout, run, swim, or whatever you do, visualize the hunt you will have in the fall. Think about getting back to that remote corner where nobody else will go because they don't want to walk that far, or don't want to carry an animal out of there. If you visualize your hunt before, while, and after your workout, it will add more purpose to the routine and make it easier to stick with. TIP: Stay Active and prepare with one goal; become a better hunter.

New Challenge

Maybe the most important of all hunting resolutions is to make yourself pursue a new challenge in 2016. Maybe hunt a different species. Possibly hunt a new area. Go out of state and hunt some public land. Whatever you've never done before, make it a resolution to give it a shot in 2016. New challenges help to keep us sharp mentally and keep our hunting lives fresh. Sometimes staying motivated is all about staying fresh, learning new things, and experiencing new challenges. TIP; Make 2016 the year you attempt whatever adventure or challenge has been lurking in the back of your mind. There you go. Three hunting resolutions for 2016. Make this the year you dedicate yourself with your equipment, stay dedicated to your body, and try a new challenge to keep yourself sharp. Good luck and get grinding! Here is a video of a fellow named Cameron Hanes who has inspired many people over the past few years. https://youtu.be/W05aL79EeEk NEXT: 4 ACHERY GAMES FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY