5 Principles to Success in your Riding - part 1

What I would like to share with you in today’s article is part 1 of the 5 Principles of success which you can apply to your riding and also other areas of your life.

The creators of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) noticed that when certain criteria were applied it could increase the chance of you achieving your goals! And in your case applying these principles can increase the chances of you formulating better results in your riding, right now.

Let me be honest, I cannot promise that you will suddenly achieve massive success in your riding. But when you apply these 5 principles to your riding, I can definitely ensure that the chances of you improving your riding are much better than before! And I personally believe that if there is something like this, that can help you achieve your goals, you will want to know about it.

When I say “apply” these principles to your riding I do not mean read this article now and then wait until a month has gone by to prove it isn’t true. That’s not how it works – unfortunately, how easily could I make millions of dollars selling this article?!
No, what I mean when I say “apply” is this: Read the article now and then use what you have learnt with every principle, every day.

Change happens when we do things differently consistently, not only once!

Personally, I would recommend reading all parts of this article 3 times every day for 30 days. And then let me know how you go. I’d love to hear your feedback!
I will post a new principle every week, so you'll have all 5 Principles together in 5 weeks!

My tip: Seriously, you are not paying lots of money for this article; you can’t lose anything. However you can gain something you really want, right?! So, give it a go and actually apply the principles to your riding.

O.k., let’s get started:

Principle 1: Know Your Outcome!
So many people go through their life getting and reacting to whatever turns up. I can remember asking a client a while ago: “So, what do you want your riding/your life to be like in 1 year?” The answer I get most of the time to this question is this: “No idea!“ or “I don’t set goals.”

The fact is a lot of people do not set goals. In general it can be said that people spend more time planning their holiday, then they do planning their life. In our case I think the same can be applied to setting goals for your riding. True?!

But think about it. You spend so much time and money on your horse, don’t you think that when you have set goals you will improve your chances of actually reaching them?!

To become the “Master” of your riding the first step you must do is become clear on what outcome you want!

Ask yourself some questions like:
- “What is it I truly want to achieve in my riding?”
- “What do I want my relationship with my horse to be like?”
- “What do I want to experience in my riding moment to moment, day by day?”

We constantly face challenges in our riding (especially when training on our own) and what can happen is that sometimes we feel so caught up in the challenge that all we think about is the “problem”; we forget to ask ourselves “What outcome am I looking for?”

I know so many riders who are so focused on what the horse DOES NOT do well or they CANNOT do (yet), all they think about when riding is exactly that – the problems! When we move our focus from the problem to our outcome we are giving ourselves a much better opportunity to achieve what we really want in our riding.

So, no matter what situation you are in (and no matter how challenging it is) the key is to be able to realize that your focus needs to be on what outcome you are looking for.

I'm looking forward to your feedback on how you go with setting goals/outcomes for your riding and your relationship with your horse!

I'll post the 2nd Principle to Success in your Riding next week. It's called: "Take action!"

To you and your horse,

Your Stepping Up Coaching team