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| Photo by Sara Fogan Jane Savoie at the 2014 Horse Expo in Pomona, California. |
In Part 2 of this blog, I will
share more advice and words of wisdom from a few of my favorite horsemen and
horsewomen. Again, while these pearls of wisdom were originally spoken in the
context of training horses and riders, the main theme of each of these messages
is also relevant for, and applicable to, many other human/life experiences.
·
Gina Miles: “Ride
past the last jump. Have a plan for where you are going.” Whether you are
riding your horse on a grand-prix jumping course or you are driving to the
grocery store, it is important to know not only where you want to go and how
you plan to get there. It is also imperative that you know what you are going
to do once you arrive at your destination. Life carries on and time passes whether
you are doing something or not, so keep setting new goals that will continue to
motivate you to succeed after you have accomplished this one. http://mileseventing.com/
·
Gina Miles: “Don’t
let one mistake ruin the ride; go on to the next movement.” Everybody makes
mistakes; the trick is to not allow one error paralyze your progress. If you
can’t remember information to answer one of the questions on a test, don’t
waste time worrying about that problem. Answer the other questions on the test,
and go back to tackle that item if you have time. Once a mistake has happened,
it is over; but there can and will be other opportunities to regain your
advantage if you allow yourself to move on. As former British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill famously advised his compatriots during World War II: “Stay
calm and carry on.” http://mileseventing.com/
·
Monty Roberts: “Low adrenaline equals high learning; high adrenaline equals low
learning.” I use this advice every day, whether I am handling one of my
trainer’s stallions or dealing with rush-hour freeway traffic. I know that the
more calm and relaxed I feel, the better I can focus on what I need to do to
accomplish my goal. The key to achieving a goal is to maintain a low-energy
state so that high-energy emotions (e.g., fear, frustration, anger, excitement)
do not get a chance to interfere with what you are doing. http://www.montyroberts.com/
·
Monty Roberts: “If you give yourself fifteen minutes, it will take all day. If you
give yourself all day, it will take fifteen minutes.” One of the biggest
lessons I have learned (repeatedly) from this advice is, it is important to
devote my complete attention to the task I am working on while I am doing it. Have you ever noticed how quickly a series of
small projects can explode into a major endeavor—especially when you try to
accomplish these projects at once or in rapid succession? Multi-tasking has its
place, but that place isn’t every place or all of the time. Show yourself
some respect by honestly assessing your physical and emotional ability to
accomplish a specific task; based on this information, make an honest estimate
of how long you believe it will take you to do that one task. When you go to
work on that project, allow yourself twice the amount of time you originally
estimated it will take, so you don’t have to feel rushed or otherwise
pressured to complete the job. (You’ll probably complete it within the original
time estimate, too.) http://www.montyroberts.com/
·
Jane Savoie: “You
have time.” It is easy to get so caught up in the excitement of an
experience that you can’t (or refuse to) stop doing it. Put on the brakes,
anyway! Ignore the temptation—no matter how strong it is—to rush through the
training or keep repeating what you have just learned so you can “perfect” it.
Everything takes time to learn and even longer to master. A young child or a
young horse has a short attention span to learn something new, but adults can
also become overwhelmed and burned out when they focus a lot of time working on
just one thing. Spread out the amount of time you work on a project so you can
approach it from a fresh, enthusiastic and focused mind-set. Rome wasn’t built
in a day, so the saying goes; but it was
built. You have all the time you need to complete your project, too. http://www.janesavoie.com/
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in
Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation
Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®
and to set up an appointment, please
visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2014
