My horse is very sensitive. It doesn't take much for him to pick up on my inner angst, ESPECIALLY if I am riding. Outside of my comfort zone I can experience a lot of anxiety. This makes Zeke nervous which makes me even MORE nervous. This is not a recipe for a good time! It isn't something to just Cowgirl Up through, so I needed to find less nerve-wracking ways to expand the comfort zone.
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The “Goal Crushing Worksheet” is my favorite resource for breaking down my major goals for the month. I do it for a major goal for each of my top four mission goals. It goes though the acronym “CRUSH IT” which stands for Claim your target, Refine your objective, Understand your motivation, Step it out, Handle obstacles, Implement your plan, Treat yourself. This worksheet encompasses the essential processes for achieving goals.
I encourage you to listen to episode 37 “How to Make New Year’s Resolutions That You Will Actually Keep This Year” of the Do It Scared Podcast. It will give you a whole new idea about goals, and it goes over the Goal Crushing Worksheet. Also, in my post on my Goal Strategies I cover how I approach my goals. Reflecting on a period of time is a key way to learn and improve. Since I plan and set goals on a monthly basis, I like to also review each month. In my monthly reflection I will reflect on the month in summary, the goals I set for the month, my accomplishments during the month, lessons I learned, and improvements I want to make in the future.
I don't know about you, but my horse is shedding. Which means one thing: spring is almost here! Who can think about spring without thinking about spring cleaning? Even if the thought doesn't occur on its own, someone else will bring it up! There really is something about the new life of spring that motivates and inspires us to refresh our possessions and our spaces.
Over time I have come to understand the fundamental truth in my life that clutter, disorganization, and messes stress me out. This has been proven to cause anxiety, but everyone has a different tolerance for mess, clutter, and disorganization. I grew up with a lot of clutter and mess, but now my tolerance is lower and a small amount can cause me a surprising amount of stress. Because of this, I had to come up with a way to tidy up and get organized that worked for both me and my husband Alex so I could be more calm. When I signed up for a gym membership at my local Y, I browsed the group classes offered in hours I could attend. One in the mornings caught my eye: pilates. I had heard of it and that it is a good form of exercise, but I didn't know much about it. By the description alone I didn't know what to expect. A unique method of body conditioning that focuses on core conditioning to strengthen the abdominals and lower back. Using the science of "contrology," it strengthens and tones muscles, improves posture, provides flexibility and balance, and unites body and mind. I found out that a mat thicker than a yoga mat was recommended since it is a "mat" class, so I ordered a luxuriously cushion-y teal one. I didn't know that the Y provides mats, but I loved having my own fun-colored mat even on day 1! After my very first 6:45 AM class before work I was SOLD. Since then I have become even more of a fan of pilates. In this post I will share my thoughts on pilates in its various forms.
I LOVE trail riding and competing in Cowboy Dressage, but both are activities that requires trailering. More specifically I love competitive trail through the North American Trail Ride Conference which for the full "A" rides usually requires being tied to the trailer overnight. This for most people and their horses is simple and the advice most often given when people show apprehension about tying to the trailer for long periods of time is "as long as they have food and water the horse is usually fine". I assure you, my horse Zeke is not fine. As you can imagine this puts a damper on our adventures. But I know for sure that he doesn't like anything about the trailer. However, I'm taking steps to overcome this major obstacle and want to share them with you.
The “Goal Crushing Worksheet” is my favorite resource for breaking down my major goals for the month. I do it for a major goal for each of my top four mission goals. It goes though the acronym “CRUSH IT” which stands for Claim your target, Refine your objective, Understand your motivation, Step it out, Handle obstacles, Implement your plan, Treat yourself. This worksheet encompasses the essential processes for achieving goals.
I encourage you to listen to episode 37 “How to Make New Year’s Resolutions That You Will Actually Keep This Year” of the Do It Scared Podcast. It will give you a whole new idea about goals, and it goes over the Goal Crushing Worksheet. Also, in my post on my Goal Strategies I cover how I approach my goals. Reflecting on a period of time is a key way to learn and improve. Since I plan and set goals on a monthly basis, I like to also review each month. In my monthly reflection I will reflect on the month in summary, the goals I set for the month, my accomplishments during the month, lessons I learned, and improvements I want to make in the future.
Just breathe! I have heard it before, but it never really helped. OBVIOUSLY I AM BREATHING! I have also heard different methods such as take a big exhale, “square breathing” (in 4, hold 4, out 4, hold 4), and belly breaths. None of these really worked that well for me. Sure they probably helped, but I didn’t really feel that much calmer.
This last year I have made some progress. I know I am not alone here, but I LOVE BOOKS. Even though I have owned an eReader and MANY books for years, I had fallen out of reading for pleasure regularly. I used to love curling up with books when stuck at home when I was a kid. When I took time to read as an adult I always enjoyed it--even if it was during a college class, in the car, or at the airport. I listened to a lot of audiobooks when I had an hour commute, but hadn't listened since then.
To ease back into reading for pleasure I set the bar low the last two years with a goal of reading 5 books. I hit that goal each year and I loved it! I have seen many people post the books that they read in 2019 and what they want to read in 2020. I didn't track my 2019 books, but have added this to my planner to track in 2020 and beyond. I also didn't make a reading goal for 2020 or a reading list because I didn't want to cause myself that pressure or sway from the freedom of wanting to read whatever spoke to me at the time I needed to start a new book. The more I thought about tracking books read, the more I knew this was something I wanted to do to shed light on that phase of my life. It's like the books that I read at that time tell a story of their own about that season of my life. Today I sat down and made my list of books that I read/listened to in 2019. I hope I got them all! In this blog post I will share my approach to books, my completed list for 2019 with short comments, and my rough idea of the books I want to go through next. I’m sure you have heard of people choosing a word of the year. It’s a pretty common practice, but I haven’t really taken part in it. Right now, I am going through Chase the Lion by Mark Batterson with my mentor, and he has a practice of choosing both a word and a verse of the year. This has inspired me to adopt that practice as well. The Equestrian Planner has you choose a motto/slogan for the year.
All right, so now I have a list of 3 ways of doing “of the year”. One may appeal to some people more than the others do. I have don’t the motto/slogan last year, but I really want to do all of them this year. Regardless of how many are used, they all create a theme for the year. Now is the hard part: deciding which “of the year” to use and what it should be. This post is a 2-for-1 special! First, I’ll go over the strategies that I use to keep making progress toward my goals. Then I will do the first of my monthly posts about crushing my big goals for the month.
The “short list” of my goal strategies
Even if you don’t read through this whole post, I encourage you to listen to episode 37 “How to Make New Year’s Resolutions That You Will Actually Keep This Year” of the Do It Scared Podcast. It will give you a whole new idea about New Year’s resolutions and goals. She also goes over her Goal Crushing Worksheet that I will be going through later. Now you have a big dream that both inspires and scares you. It might seem like there is a huge gap between where you are now and where you want to be. It’s hard, but don’t worry about that. Focus on the growth not the gap. As long as you are continually making small progress, you will accomplish amazing things over time! It may take a while to notice it, but whenever you do have progress be sure to recognize it. I’ll touch on how essential that is later in this post.
Have you heard “if your dream doesn’t scare you, it isn’t big enough” before? I know that I have, but it always seems too scary to dream that big. What if I fall short though? What if circumstances out of my control would make my big dream impossible? So, I didn’t shoot for a big, scary dream. Instead, I continued on with my SMART goals that were easily within reach and never really got much further than my ordinary life. I wasn’t inspired enough to do much more than be slightly better than I would have without even the mild SMART goals.
This year I have had many recurring instances when different people expressed the importance of dreaming a big good-scary dream and living so that you don’t die with regrets on what you could have done. It is all too easy at the end of the year to be disappointed about where I am currently or seeing others that have accomplished what I wish I would have this year. This is why I think it is very important to reflect back on this year instead of only focusing on the next goals (or the disappointing act of carrying forward this year's goals into next year. I don't want to focus on every place I fell short, but I want to keep a positive spin that gives myself grace and sets me up for future success. In this blog post I will reflect on my accomplishments and goals met this year, lessons I have learned this year, and what I want to do better next year.
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DisclaimerOther than my partners/affiliates listed on my recommended resources page, I am not affiliated with any product or business other than being a customer, supporter, or member. I am an amateur (with an accounting day job) and do not receive any income from the horse industry. Anything I write about is from my own experiences. Nothing is intended to instruct you in how to act. All horse activities are innately dangerous, so please use caution and understand the risks. Categories
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Welcome to my Blog!
Here I share my in-depth & often analytical thoughts along my journey. I hope you enjoy my musings, and feel free to share your thoughts! I enjoy learning from you!
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