Hello all! :-)
I’m coming to you from the domestic terminal at Sydney airport. I’m on my way home to Melbourne from two days of intensive marketing training with my business mentor up here. I do this at least three times a year, and LOVE the education that I get from it.
Archie is looking fat and happy during his holiday! :-)
Up until now in these blogs I’ve really focused on the ‘horsey’ side of my life, which is SUPER important to me, although there is another part of my life that gets more air time through my professional avenues, and I’m going to inject a little more of that into my blogs in the coming months, because I had a MASSIVE learning experience around the time of competing at the Melbourne International Three Day Event this year. Basically what happened was, that coming into the Melbourne 3DE, I became completely focused on my goal, tunnel visioned around it in fact (which is exactly what I think you should do when you want to achieve something!!) but what I neglected to do, was make sure I continued to put the appropriate amount of energy into my business and continue to grow it, and as a result, have found myself on the other side of the Melbourne 3DE, horses on holidays, and a business that is not going NEARLY as well as it was back in April before I hid under the ‘Melbourne 3DE Rock’! Big learning curve for me.
Anyway, I am very fortunate to be running my own business and calling the shots in my life, and I’d like to write about that a little bit more, because I really want to see more people doing something similar for themselves and making the switch from working in a job that they probably don’t like, to working for themselves and making a living doing something that they love.
I love business because I can be incredibly creative, I can come up with some hair-brained idea, and yet, it might be able to help someone improve their life somehow. I also get to make a massive difference in the lives of everyone I work with, the guys who I’m working with at the moment get some results that give me chills down my spine and make me proud to be a part of their journey, and I’m planning to make the number of people who I contribute to grow exponentially in the coming years. The other big plus to being in business, aside from the warm fuzzy feeling I get whenever I get an email or message from someone saying how much they have been able to change their life, is that there is no ceiling on the life that I can create for myself. No parameters within which I have to operate, no boss to answer to, no working hours to keep...and frankly, that is pretty awesome. Business is hard work, but, in my opinion, there is no greater teacher in the University of Life than going out and creating an enterprise that aims to help the lives of other people at the same time as rewarding you financially. So, for me...the rewards well and truly outweigh the drawbacks!
So, I guess that’s a good segway to what I was learning about for the last two days; leveraging my business and allowing me to move from coaching people 1:1, to working with many people through live events, webinars and products. This will mean that I’m not limited by the number of hours I have available to me in one week, as to how many people’s lives I can help change. So, as you can imagine, I’m pretty excited about the changes that are going to happen in the coming months in the world of Think Forward Coaching (that’s my business) and what that’s going to mean for me, and the people that I work with!
Well it definitely wouldn’t be a complete blog entry if I didn’t give you the update on the furkids...
Muz after his visit from supervet, Kirsten Niel. Really looking forward to having him back out competing this season
Muz is finally back in action!!! He had until after the MI3DE off, and has since gradually returned to work on the flat (expressively so for the first few weeks). Unfortunately one morning after working him around two weeks ago, I checked on his legs after they had been iced, and found that his near side fore (the one that he had been lame on) was substantially hotter than the other front leg, although he was not unsound. So, on Wednesday before I left for Sydney, Kirsten Niel, the FEI vet, came out and we re-X-rayed him with her fancy digital machine (Thanks Kirsten!!! You’re awesome!) and found that he has a fairly substantial spur in his fetlock joint. This is disappointing to say the least in an (almost) 7 year old horse, but I have made the decision that we’ll do whatever we can for him, because I feel that he’s got so much potential. So we have had the joint injected, first time I have ever injected a joint, and TOUCH WOOD, he stays sound and doesn’t need to be injected regularly to maintain his soundness. Keep your positive thinking caps on for me please! :-) On the upside, we have a verdict now (I love an action plan!) I know what’s going on for him, and can start jumping him soon in preparation for a normal eventing season...if he goes unsound in the near future then we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
I am very excited to share that tomorrow he is going to be heading off to start a new life as an event horse in a super home in the south-east of Victoria...I won’t reveal who is taking him on, but I’m sure they are going to be a great partnership and I can’t wait to watch them progress through the grades together in the near future :-)
This is Gloria, she is a little 15.1hh 5yo OTT mare
This is LazyBoy, he is a 10yo 16.1hh OTT gelding
We’ve also got a few other horses for sale at home at the moment, and I’m enjoying having some extra projects on the side, my riding is certainly improving, but I’m also very much looking forward to getting back to just riding my two boys each day and focusing on growing my business. Hopefully these two cuties find new homes very soon too!! They are both coming out in the August Horse Deals. :-)
Well, that’s about it from me for tonight, my flight is about to board, so I need to start packing up! :-) I’ll look forward to updating you in August with Muz and Archie’s progress and all my new and exciting business ideas! :-)
Until then, Best Riding,
Nicole
