Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Getting Out of My Own Way


I am a very positive person, pretty much all of the time. I like to keep my head in the clouds.... The view from up here is quite nice! My glass is always half full. Every disappointment is a chance to only make myself better next time... Anyway, you get the picture. There are situations though that can start to weigh on me. I wanted to write a blog about the "other" piece of my riding I am working on, the mental side.
I like to analyze things, all things really. I am a very reflective person because that is what my job as a school teacher forces me to do. I look at all types of data and determine, from that data, what the next steps need to be. I am constantly reflecting and planning. With riding, I am no different.

I make plans- a lot of them! Some of them are completely unrealistic but fun to think about nonetheless. Then, I talk those plans over with Megan, Jenn, Andrea, and Emily on Monday nights over Mexican food. Some of my plans they like some of them they hate! I am ok with both. I am just glad that we can all be honest with each other. I respect all of their opinions for sure. The biggest difference, I feel, between us all is that they are professionals so they get to set their calendar around important shows, etc. I try to do the same but also have to take into account my work calendar. I tend to panic when my plans don't materialize! I AM however, a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. So for example, when I didn’t get to go to the jumper show cause of the weather, I just said, "I just saved over $100 and she's been jumping really well so I don't feel like I NEED to go but it would have been fun!" I have had to train my way of thinking though and it is not always that easy!
As I have said in earlier blogs, Craig Shegog, my show jumping coach, is both my jumping coach and what I'd call the closest thing to a life coach I have ever had. Not the kind of life coach that wants to discuss the ins and outs of my crazy life! He knows I am a school teacher (or that I have a job with summers off), he's met Tom and seen him a few times, and he knows I teach a few clients but that's probably about all he knows about me personally. However, when it comes to my riding, he knows more about my thought process than I do. He knows what I am going to think about a riding situation before I do and often how I will react. He knows and calls me on it when I am not being mentally tough. He knows that sometimes I bring up mistakes I have made in lessons YEARS ago, and that I can have 100 good jumps and one "bad" one and the one bad one stays with me longer than the 100 good ones! He knows Frankie is a different horse from her left side to her right side, and he know that mentally, I can get in my own way by overthinking everything.
We have really been working on demising the ability that I have to get in my own way, but it a daily task. He never dismisses any of my thoughts or makes me feel stupid for asking questions or making a statement and he always addresses my "concerns." We start every lesson with a brief discussion about what Frankie has done the previous days, how she was or what I felt, and what needs to happen the following week. Another thing he has been doing since very early on is recommending sports psychology books for me to read. He has read many himself and says with a library card, it's the cheapest coaching I can get because I have the tools and ability, I just have to put it all together.
I have found that many of the books written for the game of golf, can pertain to riding. The last book I read was Life is not a Game of Perfect by Dr. Bob Rotella. It had several good points about working hard and not selling yourself short and about how to train your thinking to reach your full potential. Here are just two pages that I found interesting about thinking you "did you best."


 
I found this interesting even as a teacher because I wonder how many times I have given work back to students and lead them to believe they have done the best they can? And if I have done that, have I limited them in the future. Have I limited myself at times? I highlighted many parts in the book and will skim through them from time to time for sure.
I am now reading this book. If nothing else, reading fills my mind with other thoughts.



 
If you have any good books you have read and would like to share them with me, I'd love to read them!  Until next time, think you are awesome and believe in your dreams!


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