I went to “Savvy Support Club” at the Horse First Farm last night. This is held once a month and a chance for people who work with their horses using Natural Horse Training methods to meet and share information. Last night there was a speaker, Anke Johnson, who was to speak on “Squashing Fear and Building Confidence”. The talk was not at all what I expected but I took a lot away from it. Anke is a life coach but as she said, she can’t motivate any of us to do anything, it has to come from within and what she does is help people find for themselves what motivates them.

Things We Fear

Anke had us draw a large circle then divide it into 8 pieces (like a pie) then label each piece on the outer circle with something that we fear.
She then had us rate each area with where we are from zero to 10 with zero being the worst. Examples for me on the circle were “fear of injury”, “fear of not being in shape” enough to ride better, “not enough time” to do what I need then what I want, “losing skills/forward progress” with my horse due to winter weather and not enough time , etc. She then pointed out how if you improve even one baby step in one area you will see progress in the other. Note that at least two of my pieces of the pie related to “not enough time”.

Then she asked people how much time they could give this week to make one small step in just one of those areas. She asked one person how long it would take to make one small step where she wanted to improve (riding bridleless at a canter was her goal). She said she needed 2 hours this week to work on it. Anke asked her if she could divide this time into 30 min. slots but she felt that 30 min. was not enough time to catch and groom her horse let alone ride him. Anke then asked her how she could make that easier. After thinking she said if one of the workers on the farm would leave her horse in his stall she would have saved time by not having to catch him. Anke then asked her when she would work on this goal and made her pick a day and time. She then asked her to have a support person that would help her achieve her goal and someone to hold her responsible for taking this time with her horse. She then is to e-mail or call that person and say “I did it”.

Finding Time

I started to relate this to my lack of time when she asked me if I had 5 min. three times per day to work on one of my goals. When I hesitated and said maybe 5 min. twice a day she said she could see that would be too big of a step for this week. She assigned me to take 5 minutes 3 times in the next week and by next Thursday I am to e-mail her and tell her that I did it. Neat system and although I can’t afford her classes or coaching I am definitely going to try to break things down in my life to smaller steps so they don’t look so impossible.

Anke also mentioned that often with time management issues it is procrastination or not prioritizing. I know my biggest issue is time management and it affects everything I do which causes me stress. Finding a few extra minutes is not easy so when I find them it is a blessing and I want to make the most of them. So this a.m. the class I attend on Friday a.m.s was cancelled. I have a 40 min. drive each way to get there. I now have an extra 2 hours and 20 min. in my morning! I already have the barn cleaned, the hay thrown down from the hay mow to the stalls (enough for the next week!), was able to work with grooming the foster horses a little bit, another row of snow and ice chipped off my patio/deck area and my weekly blog post written (one of my goals is to write more often) and now I have the hot tub open and running waiting for me to finish this post as a special treat for myself (it is a “balmy” 30 degrees out today but no wind and the tub is well over one hundred degrees). Wow I feel great and it is only 10 a.m.!!

So where can you find some “stolen moments” to catch up on something in your life or do something you really want to? I hope you have success in finding some this week.