Being a horse I live very much in the here and now. Also, I am a creature of habit. Part of the secret to effective horse training is understanding how horses think and why they react the way they do to their environment. One object of good horse training is to teach good habits. Doing this step-by-step avoids creating confusion. Repetition builds up the mental muscle necessary to form a solid base of good habits. It might take take one or two times to reinforce a good habit or it might take many repeats to establish good habits. When done well, you are establishing, encouraging and rewarding good habits which encourage the horse to react the same way each time.
People are different. They tend not to be in the moment. Many people around the stables have developed some repetitive bad habits over the years. One of the habits I see and hear most is that of thinking that they are “unlucky” in life. The opposite of negative thinking is commonly thought to be positive thinking, but positive thinking on its own is not usually enough to change the habits formed over a lifetime.
Just like teaching horses to develop good habits, it takes a bit of work to teach yourself to get into the habit of developing positive habits and remaining positive. You have to be pro-active and put into action what it is you are trying to attract into your life. Dwelling on on perceived ill fortune or bad luck attracts more ill fortune or bad luck.
Get into the habit of setting short-term goals for the day. When you wake up, immediately visualize the day going well. Keep your focus not only on where you are going but why you are going there. This will motivate you and help keep your mind clear and focussed on achieving your goal and having a successful day.
If you don’t give your mind goals to focus on then it will focus on default thoughts. Default thoughts usually stem from the past because this is the thing that the mind knows best!
Each bad habit can be overcome. Take constructive steps to stop bad luck happening in the future. Learn to see both sides of the coin and transfer your “bad luck” into “good luck”.
Life is not always as easy and convenient as we would wish. Sometimes it twists and turns.
Enjoy your ride.