Have you ever had the feeling that you weren\’t accomplishing your goals, or weren\’t improving as quickly as you would have hoped? I have.
When I was starting riding lessons, my mom thought that it would be like driving a car. That it would take about twenty to thirty lessons to tackle riding. She wished! That wasn\’t the case at all. I was eight years old and I didn\’t care how many lessons it would take, I was riding. My main goal was \”to be around horses\” and riding meant \”sitting on a horse\”. At the age of eight I just \”wished\” that one day I became that rider. The talented dressage rider, that is.
After 7 years weekly riding lessons at the riding school I quit. I was disillusioned. I still \”wasn\’t a good rider\” even though I didn\’t really know what being a \”good rider\” precisely meant. But I didn\’t realize what was going on, I just thought the riding school wasn\’t that good.
I became frustrated because I didn\’t have a clear goal. I could get a horse to walk, trot, canter, halt, make a turn and get over a small jump. I had vague goals about leg yielding in trot and canter pirouettes but I never thought to communicate it to my instructor or parents.
Now I know that when I become frustrated I have to take a good long look at my goals. Are they S.M.A.R.T.?![\"SMART](\"https://hippologic.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/smart-goals-hippologic.jpg\")
I ask myself question like:
- Did I make a training plan and write down all the steps to get to my goal?
- Were my steps small enough to succeed?
- Did I need help in the process and didn\’t ask?
- Did I record my successes?
Sometimes there is no reason to be frustrated. All it takes is some time to look back and see where I came from and realize that I already came a long way. I would just forget to celebrate my success along the way.
Sometimes I let myself be distracted from my goals and would asking myself \”why are you not making progress?\” while in fact I wasn\’t even working on them. Why?, I ask myself. Sometimes the answer is just because I didn\’t know where to start or I didn\’t know if I could succeed.
Think about your next goal, write it down and make it happen. Then keep a record in order to celebrate your success.
Read more about creating TRAINING GOALS [<-click this]
Read more about starting a TRAINING JOURNAL [<- click this]
For my job I have to write goals. It’s amazing how having goals actually makes a road map which leads your straight to accomplishing your goals.
Sometimes, I think the problem is that we don’t know what we want. Having a journal to write out your thoughts was an excellent suggestion.
You’ve just reminded me I have to re-group and figure out the next step of my goals. It’s been a while.
Thank you for your thoughts.