Are you finding it difficult to get motivated to improve your riding?
Motivation, simply defined, is the ability to initiate and persist at a task. The reason motivation is so important in our riding is that it is really the only thing which we can control. That’s because it’s tied to your thoughts. To become the best rider and partner to your horse that you can be, you must be motivated to do so.
We all strive to be good horsemen. It takes a certain degree of focus and drive that can only be produced if you are fully motivated. Motivation is so important because horse ownership isn’t always easy.
You must learn to identify any triggers that may interfere with it such as cold weather or being overtired, and combat them before they bring you down.You have to be willing to work hard to improve, to practice and to face fatigue, frustration, pain, and the desire to do other things. And then there’s the mental anguish that comes with a horse that gets hurt or becomes ill.
10 Tips to Improve Motivation
High levels of motivation can benefit your riding more than you would ever believe; it is absolutely essential whether you are playing for recreation or for competition. It raises you up, keeps you going and tells you that you can achieve whatever your heart desires. As long as you stay motivated, you can take anything on and achieve it! If you find your motivation waning, here are 10 tips that will help you restore restore it:
1. Connecting to Your Why
Connecting to you why is about focusing on why you love horses and riding. What value does your riding and your horse bring to your life? What are you grateful for? What is it about horses and riding that push you to get up in the morning to take care of your horse? Why are you spending a significant amount of time and money on your horses and your riding? What is it about them and this sport that propels you to continue? How does riding enhance your life? What keeps you going when things get “hard”? Take a few minutes and write down all the things you love about your horse and what he or she adds to life.
2. Find Direction
Finding direction is another way of saying “set some goals”. And this doesn’t have to be some huge lofty goal such as riding in the Olympics (although it can be!) or participating is some sort of elite event. It can be as simple as participating in a trail ride, or getting your horse to learn how to side pass. To be your best, you have to put a lot of time and effort into your sport. Setting goals will give you a sense of purpose every time you ride.
3. Make a Decision
You really have three choices when it comes to your riding: stop participating completely, continue at your current level, or strive to be the best you can be. With these three choices of direction, you must select one direction in which to go. None of these directions are necessarily right or wrong, better or worse, they’re simply your options. Your choice will dictate the amount of time and effort you will put into your riding and how good you will ultimately become.
4. Dedication
Once you’ve made your decision, dedicate yourself to it. If your decision is to become the best rider you can be, then your decision to be your best and your dedication to your riding will be a top priority. Tackle procrastination head on. Don’t make excuses or waste time rationalizing why you haven’t already started. Instead, try to uncover the real reason for the delay and get going. The best way to begin something is just to begin.
5. The Goldilocks Rule
The Goldilocks Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right.
Human beings actually love challenges, but only if they are within the “optimal zone of difficulty”. Tasks that are significantly below our current abilities are boring. Tasks that are significantly beyond your current abilities are discouraging. But tasks that are right on the border of success and failure are incredibly motivating to us.
If you set a longer term goal, such as participating in a regional horse show, or training a mustang, then you will want to break that goal down into smaller bite sized short-term goals. By far the most important goals in practical terms are those for the short-term. These serve as check marks or milestones to completing the ultimate goal.
If you find yourself feeling unmotivated to work on a particular task, it is often because it has drifted into an area of boredom or has been shoved into an area of great difficulty. You need to find a way to pull your tasks back or break them down to where you feel challenged, but capable.
6. Set Floors and Ceilings
If the short term goal is the ceiling, then setting a floor is to break the task down to the least amount of effort that you are willing to put into the task. For example, if running a full 26 mile marathon is the goal, the ceiling might be to run 3 miles a day for a week according to a particular training plan. The floor could be to get up every morning, put on your running shoes and walk to the corner and back. You will do this no matter what. No matter what!
If you set a ceiling of riding 3 days a week, maybe your floor is driving to the barn 3 days a week and grooming your horse. What usually happens is that by setting the floor, momentum takes over and you finish the original task. If I make the effort to drive to the barn to groom my horse, I may as well, throw on the saddle and ride for 15 minutes.
7. Have a Riding Partner
It’s difficult to be highly motivated all of the time on your own. There are going to be some days when you just don’t feel like getting out there. Having someone to ride with, to bounce ideas off of and to push you is a great motivational tool. That someone can be a friend, a teacher, a coach or a trainer.
But the best person to have is a regular riding partner, someone at about your level of ability and with similar goals. You can work together to accomplish your goals. Chances are that on any given day at least one of you will be motivated. Even if you’re not very psyched to practice on a particular day, you will still put in the time and effort because your partner is counting on you. They can help you keep it fun. And fun is a great motivator!
8. Rewards
Extrinsic rewards such as winning ribbons, buckles, trophies or prize money can be a great motivator. But so are words of encouragement from teachers, riding partners and friends. Titles like “Rookie of the Year”, or “Most Improved Rider” or even cheers from the crowd can give us a great sense of accomplishment.
Rewarding yourself when you complete a particularly difficult task or hit a milestone is also a good motivator. Learn what it takes to get yourself to complete dreaded tasks and set up a system of rewards for completion.
9. Positive Self Talk
Using positive self-talk or repeating affirmations is a technique that can be used to enhance motivation. The word affirmation comes from the Latin affirmare, originally meaning “to make steady, strengthen.”
If you believe the phrase you are what you think, then life truly stems from your thoughts. Repeating positive self talk or affirmations rewires our brains. Much like exercise, they raise the level of feel-good hormones and push our brains to form new clusters of “positive thought” .
This means we have to be very careful with our words, choosing to speak only those which work towards our benefit. In the sequence of thought-speech-action, positive self-talk plays an important role by breaking patterns of negative thoughts, negative speech, and, in turn, negative actions.
Likewise, affirmations strengthen us by helping us believe in the potential of an action. When we verbally affirm our dreams and goals, we are empowered with a sense of reassurance that our words will become reality.
One of the most famous examples of using positive self talk was the legendary boxer Mohammed Ali who repeated the claim, “I am the greatest” so many times that even his opponents believed it. According to Ali “I figured that, if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.”
10. Refresh and Rewind
Sometimes we just need to take a break. Your body may need time to rest or heal. Your brain may need time to process new information. And even your horse may need time to rest and to just be a horse.
This may not necessarily mean that you stop riding all together. It may mean, going on a trail ride with friends or attending an elite event as a spectator. Maybe you want to take a lesson in a different discipline just for fun. Or maybe you just want to sleep in and get a massage. We all need time to recharge from our busy lives.
Final Thoughts
Motivation is an important life skill. Increasing motivation is fundamentally about a change of attitude, developing a positive ‘can do’ mindset and engaging in activities and short-term goals that will have a positive effect on your confidence, your horse-human relationships and will help you improve your riding.
For more articles on motivation, check out these articles:
How to Get Out of a Riding Slump
How to Set Priorities to Improve Your Riding
3 Big Lies We Tell Ourselves About Our Riding
If you would like help with improving your motivation and goal setting, I invite you to get my free “Focus on Your Dreams” mini-course that is available to you just by clicking the link below. You’re going to love it!
Enjoy the Ride!