By Sally O’Dwyer, with help and inspiration from master entrepreneur and teacher, Seth Godin.
In his book, “The Practice, Shipping Creative Work”, Seth Godin created a list of Forty-Five Ways that we sacrifice our work to fear. The length of his list illustrates the insidiousness of fear and the many ways it ruins us. Seth’s list made me realize that I am a sucker for fear and that gets the best of me and my riding far more often than I thought.
In dressage, fear steals our joy, blocks our progress, and prevents us from reaching our true potential.
Identifying fear-based behavior is the first step in stomping on it and eliminating its powerful sting.
Here is a modified Seth Godin list for dressage riders. Do any of these ring true to you?
Thirty Ways Fear Holds Us Back in Our Riding
- Procrastinate
- Abandon the Grand Prix
- Ignore the experts
- Catastrophize
- Mail it in
- Try too hard
- Wait for the muse
- Embrace jealousy
- Taunt yourself
- Seek applause
- Focus on your age
- Listen to people who are afraid
- Confuse perfection with quality
- Polish your excuse
- Compromise on the hard stuff
- Hone self-doubt
- Forget to laugh
- Hide from your community
- Believe you are not enough
- Blame the horse
- Compare yourself to others
- Define your “you” as your current level of riding ability
- Copy others, forget your story
- Abandon the art
- Make it too complicated
- Force progress
- See asking for help as weakness
- Believe there is only one way
- Worship talent instead of skill
- Despise your body
Modified from Seth Godin’s list “#155. Bonus: The Forty-Five Ways. Pps. 178-179. The Practice: Shipping Creative Work. Published November, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593328973/ref=rdr_ext_tmb
About me. I am an amateur dressage rider, living in Boulder, Colorado. I have horses and enjoy learning about and competing in dressage. I hope to encourage others to GO FOR IT!
