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Try it for yourselfHere are some examples of NLP exercises you can work through for yourself at home. For many more , read ‘ Simple Steps to Riding Success' or come on one of our courses or workshops !. |
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Exercise 1 Know your strengths • Draw up a list of your Strengths in the left hand box. Decide how important each is to you riding well and score (5 is high, 1 is low). Consider how you can develop them even more • Now draw up a list of your ‘Weaknesses – again these are factors in your control. Decide what impact each has on your performance and give it a score. Now write down what can you do to improve each one • For opportunities think about the factors that are in your favour, for instance a local reputation or good support from friends. Again score each and consider how you can boost these factors more. It may be as simple as just thanking someone for being there to support you. • Now consider the threats or negative external factors you face. Score them and then consider what you can do to minimize them, or cope with them better. • Finally, list what action steps come out of this exercise. The higher the score the more urgent it is that you think about what you can do. These are each items that need to built in to the timeline for achieving your goal.
By now you should have a list of ideas of things that you could do that would improve your riding. Now sort them out and prioritize them to start taking action! Exercise 2 What are my goals….. Take some goals you have already identified and think through them in terms of when you expect to achieve them and what they lead to, filling in the grid below. You may find that they are more short term – 2 or 5 years. If so, what would you like them to lead to afterwards? These are your longer term goals. When they all connect together, it gives you more momentum to make the necessary changes. Notice that the goal starts with the big one – ten, twenty years in the future! By starting here you get a better perspective of what you need to do, but if you feel daunted start at a point after which you will have achieved this goal, at least 2 years in the future, so that you are effectively looking back on what you need to do to accomplish it. Where your goals are shorter term, such as teaching your horse a new movement or qualifying for a championship, you can adjust the timescales to be much shorter, say from 2 years down to next month.
When you work through this process, you may realise that plans you have that seem very important now, are in fact quite short term. Linking them in with the larger, broader goals you wish to achieve gives them a sense of perspective. You may decide that you need to focus more on other areas of your life in order to achieve them. Exercise 3 What do you believe? Think about some of the beliefs you have. . For instance, whenever you say you ‘must', ‘should' or ‘ought' there is a belief involved! Should you be able to handle the horse out hacking? Do you worry about what people will think as they watch you, whether you will make a fool of yourself? Some beliefs are useful, some are limiting. Beliefs are principles around which we act. We usually think of beliefs as 'all or nothing' and that what we believe is consistently true. Yet a moment's thought lets you realise that in fact many beliefs have changed throughout our lives, (e.g., Father Christmas......!) Beliefs come from a variety of reference experiences that we have. Many come from the environment we are brought up in. We take on the beliefs of our parents, teachers and the culture we grow up in. These are added to by all the experiences we have – things that happen to us, and also events that we see or hear about. To explore them further, draw 6 columns on a sheet of paper, or on a spreadsheet. In the first column list out some of the beliefs or rules that you have in your life. In the next write down where it came from or what event started it. Write down what the benefits of the rule were then. Then think about the benefits of the rule now – write them down! Finally add the disadvantages of the rule now. Read them through – which ones are your ready to let go of??
Exercise 4 Examine your limiting beliefs and behaviours… Think about a recurring problem situation in your riding that you would be happy to change. As you think about yourself in that problem situation, work through the following questions, writing your answers down. • Where am I, what are the surrounding like in this situation? • How am I behaving in this situation? • What are the capabilities and skills I have or need to have? • Why am I doing this? • Who am I when I behave like this? Now look through your answers and decide where and how you can take action, and what limiting beliefs or attitudes are helping the situation to recur…. Exercise 5 – Step in their shoes Being able to see things from other people's or the horse's perspectives is a very useful tool to develop. Usually we just see things from our own point of view, ‘First Position' - our feelings and emotions, our reasoning, because that is normal! (The horse sees everything from this perspective! ) Most people are perfectly good at this skill – and it is the place to set goals from. Now, think of a situation where you feel a bit stuck, involving another person or your horse. Take three pieces of paper, put two pieces down, about 3 feet apart. Stand on the first one , ‘First Position ‘ and notice just what you feel like, what you say to yourself , what you believe in that situation. Step off the paper and shake off that feeling. Then step onto the second piece, ‘Second Position', looking across to the first. Put yourself into the other person, or horse's body and mindset. Really imagine what it is like to be them. What do they feel like, why are they behaving in that way, what do they believe in that situation? Notice what they need from that other person in the situation – you! Step off and back to First position to think about how else you could behave that would meet both needs Put down a third piece of paper a little further away from the other two pieces on the floor. This is Third, or Observer, Position. Stand on it and take a completely rational, uninvolved view of the situation, detached from all the emotions attached - Imagine you are a fly on the wall, or better still a ‘wise old thing' just watching the world go by. Think of pieces of advice that you can give the person in first position… Using all three positions gives you useful insights into situations, and is a way of giving yourself advice .
It really made me think about the future and what you really want. I think a lot of people don't think about this enough and just take what comes along because they don't realise they can change if they want to.
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