As Americans, we sure like to try and keep up with the Joneses. Our idea of what it means to be successful in this country has evolved to a place that is measured by tangible things. Is our car as nice as our neighbor’s car? Do we have four wave runners? Is my house as nice as my friend’s house? The list seems to never end.

This idea of success has oozed its way into the outdoors. All of us have fallen victim to it. I remember when it seemed like every deer hunter in the nation had a nice buck on the wall but me. It almost became an obsession to find that “wall hanger.” My wife would probably argue that it was an obsession.

The same thing applies to fishing. We all want to catch that big fish that we can snap pictures of. Maybe we’ll even catch one that is so impressive we decide to have it mounted and placed proudly in our den. It happens all the time. We like to measure our success by the things that we can touch and see. When we do this though, we lose something very important — celebrating the small successes.