Identifying the vision, value, and big-picture goals that define your agility experience is powerful and crucially important, but I know this work often gets neglected or ignored. Even I do it sometimes. There’s so much to DO in this life… making time to reflect and self-examine takes real commitment.
Vision, values, and big-picture goals are not just pretty words to hand on your wall, though. They should inform your agility decisions and the creation of your agility art. When you feel confused, dissatisfied, conflicted, or frustrated, your vision, values, and big-picture goals will help determine your next steps.
One example from my journey with Zi is the decisions I made regarding the deterioration of her start line stay in 2022.
Because my big-picture goal centers around difficult international-style courses, it was clear I wanted to dig deep and FIX this. I would not settle for not having a stay, because it would have been a significant and frequently encountered disadvantage. The importance of this behavior to my vision and big-picture goals made it worth the investment of a great deal of time and effort, and seeing this so clearly, it was easy to commit to that.
Meanwhile HOW I decided to approach the training project was informed by my values. Among other things, I value harmony, clarity, and communication. Conflict and confusion detract from the art and the experience I desire to create on the agility field. So although it is common the agility world over, I decided I would NOT try to work around our problem by raising my voice or trying to scold Zi into staying long enough for me to lead out.
Together, my vision, values, and big-picture goals are the why behind so many of the choices I make. They’re the why behind the specific help I seek, and the competitions I choose to attend. They keep me looking and moving forward, instead of circling back out of self-doubt, confusion, or FOMO.
When we act with purpose and intention, we have so much power to create what we really want. Don’t leave that on the table. Take aim at something meaningful and real, then let the magic of your iterative, creative process begin.
