It's so fascinating when you hear of two people doing the same thing, apparently in the same way, yet they get different outcomes.
Have you ever wondered why that is? I know I have.
It was curiously brought back to mind tonight when I was reading a forum entry where someone was sharing their notes from a conference they had attended.
I had been at the same conference and was fascinated by the notes.
We appeared to have heard different information and take home messages despite having attended some of the same talks.
When I read through the other persons notes I was struck by the number of "didn't like...
" and "disagreed with...
" points that had been made.
They vastly outnumbered any "I liked...
" points made and was followed up with a negative about that very same "liked" comment.
It really made me wonder what she had hoped to get from the conference.
Was she actively looking for fault? It seemed the best place to start thinking about this was to think about my own experience of the conference.
I had gone to the conference knowing I would learn lots of things and I left the conference having done just that, I learnt a lot.
Some of my take home lessons were that I liked something; it made sense and would take that on board.
Other positives I had were that, having heard another view point or another theory on something it had helped me think about that pointdifferently and made me assess if what I believed/had been taught before was still correct.
The best way to test if a fact/theory is true is to challenge it.
If it holds up to the challenge then, at least for now, it can still be considered to be true.
So even the things which contradicted my prior learning were extremely educational.
If you think that what we know today to be true will still be true forever then you close your mind off to learning new things.
This got me thinking about my approach to teaching.
When I arrive to teach someone about horse training, through conversation, I get a picture of where the horse and handler are with their training.
Sometimes what I get is "my horse does this, and that, oh and that...
" and they list of all the things their horse does that they don't like.
It trips off the tongue like the well rehearsed list that it probably is.
When I then ask them to list the things they DO like about their horse, silence ensues.
They are so entrenched in the habit of seeing and talking about the things that they don't like that they are missing all the things that are great about their horse.
The key to fixing this, and the key to any good training with any animal (including training other people), is to teach the trainer how to focus on what they DO want.
If you spend all your time focused on the things that you don't want then that is all you are able to see.
Like the person who shared her conference notes.
To have more dislikes than likes it would seem that she was focused on finding things that she did not like.
If you can change your focus on to the things that you like and DO want from your horse then suddenly you see more of them.
I remember buying a car that was an uncommon make.
I had not been aware of ever seeing one on the road until I bought one! My focus had been shifted, I had never seen one before because I was not looking for them.
As soon as started to look for them they were everywhere.
As soon as I think about what I DO want from my horse I see snippets of that behaviour pop out all over the place.
If I am focused on the behaviour that I DON'T want then I have no training plan.
I have nothing to aim for except that I want that behaviour to stop.
If I change my focus to be what I DO want instead then suddenly I have a training goal.
My training plan begins to fall in to place.
Do you believe your horse is intelligent, a great problem solver, has a sense of humour etc? If you do then that is exactly the horse you will have.
If you believe your horse can do something, regardless of shape, size and breed (health issues aside) then they can do it.
As soon as you change your focus to be about looking for the behaviour that you DO want you will start to see how it is possible to achieve that goal.
Have you ever wondered why that is? I know I have.
It was curiously brought back to mind tonight when I was reading a forum entry where someone was sharing their notes from a conference they had attended.
I had been at the same conference and was fascinated by the notes.
We appeared to have heard different information and take home messages despite having attended some of the same talks.
When I read through the other persons notes I was struck by the number of "didn't like...
" and "disagreed with...
" points that had been made.
They vastly outnumbered any "I liked...
" points made and was followed up with a negative about that very same "liked" comment.
It really made me wonder what she had hoped to get from the conference.
Was she actively looking for fault? It seemed the best place to start thinking about this was to think about my own experience of the conference.
I had gone to the conference knowing I would learn lots of things and I left the conference having done just that, I learnt a lot.
Some of my take home lessons were that I liked something; it made sense and would take that on board.
Other positives I had were that, having heard another view point or another theory on something it had helped me think about that pointdifferently and made me assess if what I believed/had been taught before was still correct.
The best way to test if a fact/theory is true is to challenge it.
If it holds up to the challenge then, at least for now, it can still be considered to be true.
So even the things which contradicted my prior learning were extremely educational.
If you think that what we know today to be true will still be true forever then you close your mind off to learning new things.
This got me thinking about my approach to teaching.
When I arrive to teach someone about horse training, through conversation, I get a picture of where the horse and handler are with their training.
Sometimes what I get is "my horse does this, and that, oh and that...
" and they list of all the things their horse does that they don't like.
It trips off the tongue like the well rehearsed list that it probably is.
When I then ask them to list the things they DO like about their horse, silence ensues.
They are so entrenched in the habit of seeing and talking about the things that they don't like that they are missing all the things that are great about their horse.
The key to fixing this, and the key to any good training with any animal (including training other people), is to teach the trainer how to focus on what they DO want.
If you spend all your time focused on the things that you don't want then that is all you are able to see.
Like the person who shared her conference notes.
To have more dislikes than likes it would seem that she was focused on finding things that she did not like.
If you can change your focus on to the things that you like and DO want from your horse then suddenly you see more of them.
I remember buying a car that was an uncommon make.
I had not been aware of ever seeing one on the road until I bought one! My focus had been shifted, I had never seen one before because I was not looking for them.
As soon as started to look for them they were everywhere.
As soon as I think about what I DO want from my horse I see snippets of that behaviour pop out all over the place.
If I am focused on the behaviour that I DON'T want then I have no training plan.
I have nothing to aim for except that I want that behaviour to stop.
If I change my focus to be what I DO want instead then suddenly I have a training goal.
My training plan begins to fall in to place.
Do you believe your horse is intelligent, a great problem solver, has a sense of humour etc? If you do then that is exactly the horse you will have.
If you believe your horse can do something, regardless of shape, size and breed (health issues aside) then they can do it.
As soon as you change your focus to be about looking for the behaviour that you DO want you will start to see how it is possible to achieve that goal.
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