Dolly's Mantra
The things Dolly taught me became my mantra to life.
Direction
Organisation
Leadership
Lifestyle
Your true self.
Let me show you how.
Direction
The first thing you need to get anywhere in life is to start to understand where you want to be. What do you want to do?
Is there an inner calling that you keep ignoring.
It doesn't matter if your calling is to be famous, be academic, or to be a housewife. What does matter is that you know, that is what will make you happy.
After I fell off Dolly a few times I started to lose my nerve. I was told to sell her as I would never ride her.
I knew it was my nervousness causing the trouble and it wasn't Dolly's fault.
I loved that horse, I wasn't going to swap her out for another one similar to her.
So I learned. I struggled with my nervousness and eventually I realised not to ride her if I was nervous.
In this picture I had just moved her away from those people. I am wearing a back protector and am just happy to be sat on her.
This was my journey. I would learn to be what Dolly needed me to be.
My heart told me to stick with Dolly because owning her and learning what she had to teach me was more important than just sitting on her back.
Organisation
OK so maybe you know exactly where you want to be. How do you get there? If you sit at home and wait for opportunity to knock on your door, you will not get very far.
You need a plan of action.
You need to get organised and start working along your path.
To build a relationship with Dolly I had to connect with her.
I made a plan to learn all I could about her and what she needed from me to be happy.
I learned horsemanship from many angles and soon learned that my best teacher was Dolly.
Leadership
Unless you are a manager you probably think you do not need leadership. How about leading yourself?
To get where you want to be in life you need to learn to know what you want and how to say YES or NO when things do not follow your path.
Calm authority is the leadership style that I learned from Dolly . It comes from belief in yourself, understanding and setting your boundaries and overcoming your fear.
She taught me how to be strong while still being gentle. How to be focused and ignore the people around you who have different views.
She taught me what is right for everyone else may not be right for us.
She taught me to blaze a trail into doing things the right way not the common way, and I like to think those around us learned from some of what we did.
Lifestyle
Dolly also taught me how to make the most of things around me. I have never been able to afford regular holidays but when I had Dolly every day I spent with her felt like a holiday because I was doing what I loved.
We can appreciate our current life by being grateful for all the little things that are good. As for the rest we can plan to change or improve other parts.
Along with making the plans and working towards your goals, don't forget to dream. We are taught that dreams are childish and will never come true. However belief that you can manifest your dream is very important.
Always put your energy into the belief that you will accomplish your goals and achieve your dream. There is something called the Law of Attraction I explain about this elsewhere but I know this works.
I believed I would ride Dolly again and by listening to her I made it happen. I could even sit on her bareback after a timid start by me.
Your True Self
Finally you can work out who you really are.
Look around you and find what is good about your life and what could be better.
Maybe you see things a little differently as you move forward and grow.
Don't worry, life is a journey as we travel along its path, our perception of things changes. The relative importance of things changes too.
So go with the flow and following your heart, work out your next plan of action.
Even the most impossible dreams can come true if you follow these steps and follow your heart.
This Sounds Pretty Easy Right?
So why don't we do it?
Because we don't know how.
Let me show you how by using the life skills Dolly taught me