Years ago when I was in horses I remember an item on my training list I was convinced would be hard. I imagined the training being frustrating and tedious, so I didn’t do it. I put it off as long as I could. When I could delay no longer, I went out to the arena and my horse nailed this task on the first try. And the second. And the third.
I felt foolish. And I’ve never forgotten that lesson.
That doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes make similar mistakes.
For example, when I hired Megan Foster to help me with Zi’s start line I confessed I’d been carefully managing Zi’s behavior outside the agility ring for years because I didn’t think it was possible for Zi to manage herself. I’d IMAGINED it being such a long and tedious road that I hadn’t even really tried. As it turned out, Zi calmly waiting her turn was far more available than I’d realized.
Sometimes we actually have data to suggest a thing will be hard. This was the case when I first tried to teach Zi to do position changes in the start line context; her concept of what SHOULD happen once she was in a start line stay was set like concrete. So after ONE WHOLE SESSION I deemed it not worth the effort.
When I returned to the idea some time later it WAS hard. It DID require creativity, commitment, and persistence. But not even six months later it was done. Two years later, it’s an invaluable asset to our start line training that I wouldn’t want to be without. Put in that perspective, I’m so glad I didn’t just give up (again).
So I layer these lessons into my approach to future training. I watch for the times my thoughts are convincing me to give up a goal before I’ve even tried. I remind myself that something hard is not the same as something impossible.
Because how many projects have been abandoned or avoided because we weren’t sure enough of an easy path from A to B? How many possibilities have been unrealized because we didn’t even give them a fighting chance?
Don’t give in so easily, either to an imagined challenge or a real one. Be willing to strive a little harder for what you really want to achieve.
