Think positive. . .
I had my first horse show of the season last weekend. It was a big one, and I was nervous. All I could think about in the days leading up to the show were all the things that could go wrong and all the ways I would screw up. During one of these mini panic sessions, a thought crossed my mind. "You've been practicing a lot lately. Jameson (my horse) is riding exceptionally well this spring. You are going to do just fine at the show. It's going to be great!" Back up. . .did I actually just say something encouraging to myself? Talk about a foreign experience!
Why are we so eager to encourage and build up others and so quick to cut down and belittle ourselves? When I stop and think about it, I rarely say anything nice to myself. In fact, I'm quite hard on myself about everything. I decided after that initial random positive thought crossed my mind that I was going to intentionally keep doing it for the rest of the week leading up to the horse show. And do you know what I discovered? After the initial awkwardness, it felt good to say nice things to myself!
So did all of my positive thinking and encouragement of myself lead me to the most successful horse show I've ever competed in? Well, no. In fact, parts of it were probably the worst my horse and I have ever shown. But there were a couple great moments as well. And in the end, I chose to focus on those. Why? Because they make me feel better about myself then focusing on the bad moments and being hard on myself because of them.
I'm learning that you need to focus on the bad moments temporarily so that you can learn what you need to from them, but then. . .move on. And continue to encourage yourself for the next time. Stop cutting yourself down and start building yourself up and telling yourself how fantastic you are!
How have you loved yourself this week?
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