Are old fears and bad habits holding you back?
Do you find that you keep coming up against the same old fears, beliefs and old bad habits that hold you back from achieving your desired goals?
Well you are not alone. In fact you're in very good company, I have not yet come across anyone who doesn’t have their own demons to fight. Some just do it more effectively than others, but don’t despair, help is at hand!
NLP (an abbreviation for “Neuro-Linguistic-Programming”) offers us wonderful tools to overcome some of these issues.
NLP is a hybrid science discovered and further developed in the late 60’s by Computer Scientist Richard Bandler and Linguist, John Grinder. Studying the leaders in the fields of psychology, psychiatry and other brain-based therapies around the world, Bandler and Grinder decided to investigate precisely how beliefs come about?
They found that in order to grow in any area of life, your subconscious beliefs, habits, patterns and language (internal and external) need to change in order to bring them into line with what you want to achieve. This way, your subconscious beliefs will work for you instead of against you.
In fact 95% of our actions occur subconsciously as a result of our perceived and filtered experiences. This is why it is so important to work at this subconscious level.
How does this apply to the Equestrian Sport?
Riding, like most other sports, is a mind game. Many coaches believe that success is about 20% actual riding skill and 80% your mindset i.e. What’s going on between your ears.
Being a successful rider, either at a competition or simply riding out in the bush depends mostly on the perception you have of yourself and your horse. Horses can instantly pick up on the rider’s state of confidence, or a lack thereof.
Confidence is a state of mind and it starts very much with what we believe we are capable of and what we perceive is going to happen next.
BE, DO AND HAVE is the ultimate formula for success.
Being a successful rider depends largely upon feeling successful within ourselves. Success comes from confidence and self belief, which is why often some “not so talented riders” still go on to be more successful in winning competitions than some of their very talented colleagues.
GOALS
Knowing what it is that you want to achieve.
Success starts with a dream, a desire to reach a certain goal. Unless you know exactly what it is you want to achieve, you won’t get there. The key is to identify and specify what it is you want to achieve and then to share and communicate this goal with others.
By telling others about it you automatically set it in motion. And motion/action is one of the key elements for success.
All you need is to believe in your goal
Take for example Martin Luther King. He had a dream and by sharing his dream with thousands of other people, he set a motion in action to help him turn that dream into reality.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that you should get on a podium in Melbourne at Federation Square and shout to the masses: “I have a dream, and that dream is to one day ride ……..!” but put it out there, in conversation, social networking anyway you can, just let people know.
The more you talk about your goal the clearer it becomes.
Firstly, ask yourself what it is you want to achieve. Once you have set what you want to achieve put it into the big picture of your life and see if it fits! If it fits, tell your family and friends about it and you will be surprised how other people can help you in the process of achieving your goals.
Values
Values are the blueprint by which people live their life.
Finding and then prioritising your values is extremely important to give you the drive to achieve what you want. Your values become apparent by answering the following question:
What part of riding is important to me?
Now the answer might be for example:
- Winning
- Learning new skills
- Improving my confidence
As you can see, the reasons for riding can vary greatly.
The next step is to number these values according to their importance to you.
What is the most important value to you, what is the second most important value and so on?
For example:
- Learning new skills
- Improving my confidence
- Winning
Are you attracting what you are looking for? Now make sure that your goal fits with your values.
Beliefs
After your goals become clear, you can then look to your beliefs.
Beliefs are another key determining factor in achieving your ultimate success. Your beliefs reflect how you perceive the world.
They determine your thoughts and emotions that cause your vibration to resonate harmonically to reflect your inner world.
Therefore your actions stem from your beliefs and your results stem from your actions.
Beliefs can be either conscious or subconscious. That means we are either aware or not aware of them.
Action
The last step is to put your goal into action. Ask yourself ‘What is the one thing you need to do that you have not yet done that would make a big difference to your end goal?' Write that down and commit to acting on it.
It’s time to ACT now!
A goal is only as good as the action you put behind it. Otherwise it’s only worth the paper it is written on, so what are you waiting for, it’s time to act now!