Don’t Lose the Dream, but Don’t Miss the Good Things Along the Way

  Over the past few months, and with the advent of the new year, I have been evaluating my life, my dreams and my goals. As I have gotten older I have found that one of the factors that I have let get in the way of some of my dreams and goals, in my mind, is my age and my physical condition. Yet, one of the very things that I have preached throughout all my clinics, expo events, seminars and demonstrations is don’t let anyone steal your dreams, including yourself. As human beings it is a pretty normal behavior to do some self sabatoging and one

way to do that is to let the dreams and goals overshadow your life and take away the enjoyment of everyday living.

  There will always be people that do not want to see you succeed and that is unfortunate, but a part of life. But a larger problem than that is many times one of the major culprits in this scenario is ourselves. One of the biggest situations I deal with myself is that I have a tendency to miss all the little things that were good that led up to the goal I was trying to achieve. I forget to be thankful for all the good things that happen along the way. In fact, I can miss them completely.

  Sometimes the closer we seem to get to our dreams the more we tend to overlook the little successes and be thankful for them and because of that we can end up sabotaging the final outcome. I am a big one to always negate my achievements thinking that I could have been better, I could have done it differently, etc., instead of enjoying the accomplishment. I have had a lot of people who have believed in me and have backed me and want to see me attain my goals, but it always comes back to me and my beliefs, especially my belief in myself.

  The other thing that I have a tendency to do is to put my goals before other things in my life,

things that are more important. I think that this is, again, a common human trait, or at the very least an unfortunate learned behavior. Because I have always desired to make a comfortable living for my family and myself, and view that as a form of success, the path to that should not come before God and family. But it can be difficult to balance these things and even more difficult to become aware of tendencies in our behavior that cause us to let our lives become unbalanced.

  I have some opportunities coming up this year that put me in sight of some of my dreams and goals. What I have been learning is how to find a balance in those opportunities and put God and my loved ones first. I know that if I can’t find that balance and get it right, then it doesn’t matter where I want to go, or how many dreams and goals I accomplish, because I am not going to be happy when I get there.

  At almost 50 years of age it can seem like time is short, but I am learning that if I just do what I do best, to the best of my ability, and base my goals and success on that, than I am a success. So often we move on to the next thing on the never-ending list and don’t savor or appreciate the moment. I have a wall full of buckles and plenty of championships that I have won, and quite frankly, it should be a big deal, but I have often let my longer-term goals diminish those accomplishments. I have been successful in many endeavors, yet I have only now been learning to appreciate those times and to thank God for the ability he has endowed me with in working with horses and riders.

  I can’t tell you how many times I have had someone talk to me, at a clinic, a roping or just riding, about how they would like to be able to do this with their horse or do that….. and it never fails that I tell them you can do anything you can put you mind to. I often find it easier to build everyone else’s confidence up, yet much more difficult to do it for myself. I love working with horses and people and helping them attain their goals and I feel that I am good at what I do, but finding that elusive happiness can be the more difficult challenge, I believe now that much of that comes from overlooking the smaller things in life.

  At times I seem to be reaching for that indefinable success, when in fact, what I have come to find out is that success is right in front of my nose all the time and I’m missing it. It’s the good things; the little things that happen every day that bring us true success! In every day there is something good, yet we so often miss it because we become absorbed in the daily problems. The good things are all around us all the time, but we are to busy, we have to many things we need to get done. We tend to think the whole world is going to fall apart if we miss doing this or don’t get that done. And so while we are busy doing all the so-called important stuff… the good things in life are going unnoticed and ignored.

  I think what I am trying to convey here is this, we should all have dreams and goals, they are important, but we should not let those dreams and goals become more important and overshadow everything else in our life. My life is probably more than half over, and I am finally realizing that instead of worrying about the next task on my list I need to appreciate more of the day to day stuff, the little things, and enjoy the journey. If you can’t appreciate the good things in each and every day than life is truly passing you by.

  Hope you all had a great Christmas and wish for you a wonderful 2011 and I want to thank everyone for all the opportunities that have been given to me and look forward to working with everyone in the new year.

Be a Responsible Rider ~ Take care and stay safe!

Dennis