Originally Posted by
flags
Yes there is a difference. Confidence means that you have the ability and skill to get away from other hunters and roads. You are confident that you can get 3 or 4 miles back in safely and actually hunting and not worrying about what may happen. You can live without your cell phone and having someone by your side. If you lack confidence in your ability to hunt more than a couple hundred yards away from roads or other hunters you won't kill many elk.
Positive mental attitude means actually believing you will kill an elk. Remaining focused until the last minute of the last day no matter what the weather did, no matter what other hunters are doing, no matter how bad your feet hurt you must be positive. Your elk may be behind the very next tree
Those are good points and important. I give an example above of being disabled, to some extent, by a poor mental attitude. I hunt anywhere from 1.5 miles away from the terminus of a difficult 4WD road to 4 miles in. I know what you mean by the confidence factor. While I definitely hunt back in there, there is a bit of a feeling of uneasiness I experience. I ignore it, I mute it. As I have hunted this same area longer I have recognized that feeling and have learned to control or dismiss it.
As an example, I remember feeling unsure about finding my way back in the dark from a spot I was in. I had a GPS with important waypoints stored. I was pretty familiar with the trails I used. But I still was nervous. I concluded, later, that such nervousness was unfounded. I know my way around this place well enough now that while I might stray off trail, I would be able to reorient myself fairly quickly and not get into either a dangerous situation or have to spend an unpleasant night out in the bush in an impromptu bivouac. It was my brain playing mental tricks on me.
I agree that such mental issues are centrally involved.