Have you ever lost riding motivation?
“Most people are confused about the source of motivation. They think motivation is the spark that automatically produces lasting eagerness to do hard work; the greater the motivation, the more effort you’re willing to put in. Actually, motivation is a result. Motivation is the pride you take in work you have already done—which fuels your willingness to do even more.”
Haden
Motivation stems from success and fuels more success; consequently, the only thing you need to succeed is just one small victory to get a head start.
How can we lose motivation to do something we’re passionate about? It doesn’t really make sense, yet it happens frequently to most of us.
We know that horses help us immeasurably, mentally and physically, but when our lives get busy sometimes riding can seem like just another chore.
Being busy or stressed can mean that going to the yard, getting your horse in, scraping mud off, tacking up and then riding, can just feel overwhelming.
When we feel like this we know that horses would help us, but they can’t if we’re too tired and overwhelmed to make it to the yard.
If you’re like most people sometimes we have stacks of motivation. Remember the last great lesson you had, you probably couldn’t wait to ride the next day. Or the sunny days when lots of your friends are riding or successful competition days that fuel our motivation for weeks afterwards. While other times we might be affected by the weather, social media, work, and it all feels like too much effort. Doing the yard chores in the pouring rain will soon take the shine off riding. It can be so easy to put your horse in their PJs and head home for a cup of tea.
There are two factors we need to dive into. How to get motivated? And then how to stay motivated so we can be more consistent with our horses?
How to get motivated to ride when you’ve lost riding motivation
Reconnect to why you ride
Sometimes we can link our lack of motivation to the fact that we’ve become disconnected with why we ride in the first place.
Why do you have horses? Why do you ride? What do you love about riding?
Asking yourself these questions can help you get back on track and feeling aligned with the reason you love riding. If you want to compete, but you aren’t making progress, then booking a lesson with a trainer could help you regain your focus. You can now feel that your riding is focused around this desire.
Write down why you ride and put it somewhere you’ll see frequently. It’ll help you to keep your ‘why’ top of mind.
Watch and learn
What makes you feel inspired? Think about the times you’ve been so eager to get to the stables to ride your horse. What triggered these feeling? Was watching the professionals compete or binging on YouTube tutorials? It doesn’t matter what it is, what matters is that you can identify it as a motivating factor.
Plan to include your motivators
Now we know what motivates you, you need a plan which includes them regularly in your schedule. How frequently you include them depend on what the motivator is. You might get inspired when you have a lesson, but it might not be possible to have a lesson every day. But you could watch a tutorial everyday.
Pair your motivators
Do you always lack motivation to muck out? If so, try pairing mucking out with something you enjoy (listening to music or learning something from a podcast). This way you can change something you dread into something you actually look forward to.
Using your motivators helps you to keep your motivation levels up and prevents you dropping into a motivation danger zone.
Book a lesson or a clinic
Riding alone can be hard, it can be really easy to wander off track and feel like you’ve lost riding motivation. Then if we feel as if we aren’t progressing it’s natural to lose motivation. Booking some lessons helps keep you in forward momentum. You won’t want to have a long break if you have a lesson in the horizon.
Don’t have rigid goals
While goals can be great, it’s important to remember to have fun too. Some days when life is kicking our butts, a bareback wander round the farm might be all you can muster. Don’t worry that this isn’t moving you towards your horsing goal. You are connecting with your horse, having fun and being present. That’s important too.
Give yourself a pat on the back
Don’t beat yourself up because you’ve lost riding motivation. If you’re working through something challenging and you’re motivation is suffering as a consequence, then make sure you reward yourself every time you overcome the challenge and keep hold of your motivation. The reward is important, it just has to be something you feel is a reward, a glass of wine or a bar of chocolate is fine.
Cultivate a great support team
The people around you are so important to your success and motivation. Your support team might be friends, relatives, your partner, your instructor and anyone else who helps and supports you. This crew are there for you no matter what and you can rely on their support.
‘You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with’
Pick your 5 wisely and don’t be afraid to distance yourself from people who aren’t in your vision for your future.
Surrounding yourself with people who are striving to better themselves is invaluable. Their energy will inspire every area of your life.
Finding a mentor can be so important, this will be someone who you can totally trust and who has experience doing what you’re working towards. The knowledge these people can give you is wonderful and is often very motivational.
Accept that perfect conditions rarely exist
We can find the excuses bubbling up when the conditions are outside the realms of our personally constructed ‘perfect’ conditions. Too cold, too windy. You’re too busy. Too stressed …
The list goes on… It’s important to get to the bottom of why you feel you need these perfect conditions. What’s worrying you? Is there some fear creeping in? Do some digging to find out what’s stopping you from feeling fully motivated to enjoy your horse.
Find your optimum time
There’s no doubt that our lives can get busy and even just dealing with normal day to day life can eat away at our motivation. Here’s where figuring out your optimum time can be so important. You might not always be able to stick to it, but it will help you for the majority of your rides.
Personally, I find I have the highest degree of motivation to ride in the morning. If I let the day unfold, it usually takes my motivation with it. Even if it doesn’t my mind busy ticking over the things that have come up through the day. I’m not totally there for my horse, like I am first thing in the day.
By riding first thing in the morning, I get the day off to the best of starts and I also feel like I’ve achieved something, which sets me up for the day.
Write down your wins
Have you ever heard of the Negativity Bias? This refers to the fact that we are naturally hardwired to notice and remember more negative experiences than positive ones? Historically we needed to be aware of the negative experiences to stay alive and not get eaten by a bear. We don’t have to worry about that now, but the Negativity Bias is still alive and well and living within each of us.
Negative experiences are 7 times more powerful than positive ones. So you need to do everything in your power to acknowledge and remember the positive things that happen in your life. To shine more light onto them.
What you focus on grows
Due to neuroscience investigations we know that what you focus on physically grows, at a cellular level in the brain. You can choose what you focus on and so you get to decide what grows in your brain. This is a pretty awesome super power. You posses the ability to develop your own brain at a cellular level. What you focus on is what will be stored in your programming. This focus gives that thought the electrical charge – the super power to push through to your memory.
Each day write down your wins (however small), this will help you to focus on the positives and then in turn the power of them grows.
Strip things back
To become consistent with your motivation and action levels it’s important to not set super high expectations of every single ride. You need to stay encouraged to gain momentum, which you can only get by consistency doing something. Think about how you can set yourself up for success. Work on building up the number of “good” rides you have, so you will feel more confident about your riding capabilities. In the future you can set yourself more challenging goals, but right now just work on ticking off the regular wins and gaining momentum.
Embed healthy habits
This might seem obvious, but when we’re tired, not eating well or not staying hydrated our body suffers and our motivation takes a hit too. Make sure you’re getting the right amount of sleep for you and that you’re eating good, nutritious food to fuel your body. Take time off when you need it. I know this can be hard when we are trying to balance ALL. THE. THINGS, but time off is crucial to your mental wellbeing.
Become accountable
Most of us don’t like letting other people down, but we’ll let ourselves down ALL. THE. TIME. Sound familiar? Yep, we do it so often. Tap into this by creating some accountability for yourself. Maybe you arrange to hack or school with someone else regularly. Make a commitment to show up.
Schedule your riding time
If you’re anything like me you LOVE a planner, you probably live in your planner writing down your todo lists and all your appointments with regular frequency, but how often do you put your riding time in your planner? Never?.. Is your intention to do it? Then why isn’t it in your planner? Write it down and then you will see it as just as important as any of your other appointments or obligations. Not something you’ll do if there’s enough of you left at the end of the day.
Just do it
There are times when you just have to stop thinking and just do it. Take action, tack up and get on with riding. Even if your brain is trying to justify another day off. Chances are you’ll feel awesome after you’ve ridden, so just rip the plaster off and get on with it. Stop thinking so much and start doing! A great illustration of this is Mel Robbin’s Five-Second Rule.
Let’s see how this works with an example. You’re at the stables mucking out and you feel like you should ride, but straight away your mind goes off on one coming up with excuses and reasons why you should probably leave it for another day. The five-second rule suggests that as soon as you think “I should ride’ you go straight to the tack room and grab your tack. Taking action silences your brain. Count 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and do it.
We’ve now discussed lots of ways you can rediscover your lost riding motivation and to keep riding regularly, but how do you keep your motivation high?
It’s important to acknowledge that motivation is much more than a one-off event. Motivation is a result, the culmination of many results.
You don’t get motivated because you’ve done or heard something once.
You get motivated and stay motivated because you do something continually.
And because you do that thing well.
Enter the Feedback Loop. You can’t achieve success without motivation, but they are also interdependent and corollary. Motivation and success become a self-reinforcing feedback loop. Success leads to motivation, which leads to more success and even more motivation.
To start being successful you simply need a plan and your first small win.
Have you lost riding motivation before? Do you struggle with gaining or keeping your motivation? What tips work well for you when you lost riding motivation?
ALSO READ: 15 ways to become a more confident rider.