Top 7 Ways to Get Outdoors with AMC in 2025

A couple of years ago, I started keeping something that I call a “joy calendar.” Life was moving a little too fast, and I’d said yes to too many things, which were piling up and making it impossible for me to feel fully present. I was starting to realize that it wasn’t actually my packed schedule that made it a year to remember — it was what happened in between.

The sole purpose of this calendar was to record the tiny, beautiful moments that make up a life. Instead of Zoom meetings and doctor’s appointments and work schedules, good kisses, I wrote. Bioluminescence. Woke up at 3:30am to climb a mountain. As the year progressed, those pages began to fill with delightful things. Summer blackberries. Power tools. A glow-in-the-dark ukulele. Fell asleep with my back against a pine tree. Cheesecake. Jorts. Saw a moose. Big snowflakes. Deep rest.

It didn’t take long to train myself to notice beauty. To design for joy. This year, with the help of AMC, I’m bringing the same approach to my New Year’s resolutions.

Woman gazing into dawn from a mountaintop.

View from the summit of Mt. Bond, Pemigewasset Wilderness, NH. Photo by Tony Ng.

Maybe you are someone who can keep a New Year’s resolution for more than five minutes. If that’s the case, I salute you. I am not a person who can just wake up one morning at the bottom of winter with a list and start doing things differently. I have to design for joy. “Get in shape,” will not inspire me to go to the gym. But “train for that 4,000-footer you’ve been wanting to climb?” That’ll work.

Instead of setting New Year’s resolutions for 2025, I’m trying something different this year. I’m going to set intentions, and pair them with something that brings me joy. (My hypothesis? The resolutions will follow.) Luckily, AMC has lots of joyful activities to choose from.

Whether you’re into New Year’s Resolutions or not, here’s a list of the top 7 ways to get outside with AMC in 2025. I’ll see you out there.