Standing your ground for what you want is a daily focus when training horses. It ‘s a skill and muscle we have to apply if we intend to get to the next level of training. It separates out the I want to be from the I am.

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I want to be is a wish, a dream, a thought.

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I am is a way of life, an action, a step taken in the direction of that dream, wish or thought.

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I am is a learned life style, a habit, that is built from intentional, internal focus being applied to every action you take in a day.

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I am is a forward moving flow of water while I want to be is a standing pond of water not yet taking the path of movement.

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I am is standing on the ground of what you want.

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 How do you get from I want to I am? I find these three simple things to be very helpful when I’m planning for what I want;

First, I allow myself to have those really cool feelings that I had as a child, you know the ones – the feeling that got you so excited about getting to do or have something that you wanted so bad that you thought you would die if it didn’t happen. I’m talking about the excitement that tingles though your whole entire being and is so obsessive that it’s all you think about. Got that feeling? Hold onto it, you are going to need it to “adult” in a way that keeps you productive.  When we are excited about what we get to do every day we become obsessed with planning our day around it.

Second comes the adult part, planning your day around what you want. The planning and doing bring you to the place of being the horse trainer (or whatever your want is). If I am to become the horse trainer that I want to be I must schedule it into my day. Or put another way, if I want to win a world title or a blue ribbon I must schedule it into my day.

Get up every morning and visualize what it is you want, then do the I am work by scheduling it. I am training my horse during these hours and block that time out on your schedule. As adults it is a must that we block out the time to work on mastering the things we want in life. Horses don’t train themselves they need us to become part of a dedicated team with them, they need us to take action.

Thirdly and most importantly, once it’s on your schedule you have to follow through with the work of riding and you also must have a goal in mind every day that you are working/riding towards. This is where we sometimes become lost. The knowing how to set the goals that really move us forward can sometimes be difficult to pin point. Here is where those childhood behaviors can come into play again. As a child most of us had a real determination that we would/could get our way and we would work every angle that we could think of and eventually it would pay off. It paid off because we where so determined that we didn’t even see a possibility of it not happening. You have to go back to that place when goal setting, you must work every angle, problem solve, recruit help, watch how others do it.

I hope you are noticing the underlined word work  that’s the I am. The simple work we do everyday turns the “I want to be a  _____________________”  into “I am a ______________________”. You get to fill in the blanks, it’s your life have a great one.