Hello all!
Drawing closer to the end of the year and I am going through a process with all of my coaching clients where we are reviewing their biggest wins, learnings and opportunities for growth in 2013, and of course, what their greatest wants and aspirations are for the new year.
Naturally, because I have to walk my talk … I have been doing the same! So, here is my 2013/2014 review and assessment in a nutshell.
My 3 biggest WINS for 2013
- Launching the new product in my business called The 6 Week Rider Transformation
- Doing my first (of many!) Melbourne 3DE’s
- Moving into and renovating my own flat and now living with my horses (yay!!)
GROWTH - What have I grown through and learned this year?
- MUZ’s Soundness Challenges - I have learned that I don’t have to have all of the answers all the time, that ultimately what I focus on is more important than my knowledge.
- Selling LazyBoy - I learned that communicating with love is essential, and creating win/win situations always gets the best outcomes!
- Personal Relationship - A reminder that I need to give to get back! Focus on what I WANT, not what I DON’T WANT!
INCOMPLETES - Projects to Carry Over to 2014
- Muz getting sound and back on track with his competition career
- Building a 12 month group coaching program on the back of the 6 Week Rider Transformation
- Finishing the payment plan on a new program I am attending in 2014.
- Establishing a consistent affiliate program in my business, Think Forward Coaching.
WANTS & ASPIRATIONS FOR 2014
(Business)
- Launch High-End Coaching Program!
- Have a full time staff member and work only 3 days per week...
- Be earning lots of money every month...
(Horses)
- Archie to be competitive in the 2** classes at Melbourne 3DE in June and Adelaide 3DE in November
- Muz to be SOUND (yay!) and in the 1* at Melbourne 3DE in June
- Archie to run his first 3*** at Lakes and Craters in December
DRIVE - How does my life look in 12 months?
- Health - maintain 15-18% body fat consistently. Sleep well, eat clean, and have HEAPS of energy!
- Physical Riding Skill - 3*** standard by the end of the year. Be recognised as a great rider!
- Finances - Be debt free, completely financially independent and have lots of savings! Yay!
- Relationships and Support Networks - Fun, honest and open relationship with my parents, where they come to events and support me when they can. Passionate, fun and spontaneous relationship with my partner, I might even wrangle him to some big events for 2014 if I’m lucky too. More quality time spent with my best friend! Regular lessons with my coaches on all the horses. Lots of relationships with friends that challenge me and help me to be the best I can be. My groom Cat to be still enjoying working with me, to have her riding the young horses occasionally when I am away.
- Focus & Drive - To continue to manage my nerves in the show jumping ring as the fences get bigger. To continue to walk my talk and be an example of what I teach for my clients. :-)
- Lifestyle - To be working 10:30am - 5:30pm, Tuesday - Thursday ONLY unless I’m running a workshop etc - Yay for a 4 day weekend EVERY WEEK!
It’s always exciting to look back on the previous year’s biggest highs and lows, but I think ultimately what people need to remember when they do this is that it’s not WHAT has happened that determines how you feel … it’s how you FEEL that determines how you interpret what has happened! When you decide to view your year just gone as something to be grateful for (after all, you are alive and in a position where you can read this on a computer, connected to the internet, with food in the cupboard, horses to ride etc etc...) and something to learn from and be happy about, your feelings on EVERYTHING that has happened in your life that year will shift. And getting excited about and focusing on what you want for the new year is a joy and a pleasure, rather than an opportunity to beat up on yourself for all that didn’t go so well in 2013.
If you or anyone you know wants to make their 2014 look totally different to their 2013 please tell them to contact me.
The last month has held some fun and exciting things for me, LazyBoy, the chestnut horse that was here in work, finally sold and went to a wonderful new home! The girl who bought him wants to do some low level dressage and show jumping with him, which will suit him down to the ground!
Lazyboy, who is now known as Apollo, looking very relaxed and very spunky all in white before his new Mum,
Maddie came to meet him for the first time!
I’ve also spent some time planning the first half of 2014 for my two horses...
Writing this up and seeing the exciting season I’m going to have has me SUPER pumped up for 2014! Archie as you know has had some time out of the competition ring as he really needed to do some dressage homework before we came back and hit the eventing scene, but he’s now feeling strong, supple and actually like a completely different horse to the grumpy, resistant thing that I rode in the 1* at Melbourne in June.
Muz is still not completely back to normal, but I have a few tricks left up my sleeve and I’m feeling hopeful for his future.
I also now have the exciting news that I am going to have a few extra horses on the team in 2014! My groom, Cat, is going to have to have hip surgery to clean up her hip joint after a riding accident from a few years ago that is still giving her grief, and rather than give her new 1* horse 6 months off, I am going to take the ride on him for the first half of 2014, meaning that I’ll have three horses doing the run up to Melbourne 3DE! I am also taking the ride on my best friend’s young WB/TB filly by Wendy McAuliffe’s Grand Farnese out of a mare with Grosvenor and Sir Tristram lines.
This is Fanny during her fifth ride under saddle with David a few months back.
She has taken to working life like a duck to water.
‘Grand Fantasia’ or Fanny has been bred and broken in by David Boyle and she has a super bold attitude on the ground. That combined with the fact that she has eventing on both sides of her family free, and that every time a scary tarp or something goes near her paddock, she runs over to inspect it rather than away from it, adds up to tell me that she’s going to be a fun event horse! She's currently rising five and standing just over 16hh. In her short time under saddle she has proved to really enjoy having a job and really wants to please. Fun times ahead!
I’m also just under two weeks away from heading overseas to Thailand! Yay! My partner, Dave and I have been talking about going over there for years and finally we have made it happen! We booked back in March, so it’s felt kinda surreal, but it’s getting very close now! We are flying out 20 minutes past midnight on Christmas morning. We fly to Chiang Mai in Thailand’s north. It is an area surrounded by jungle, so we’ll have a more cultural experience up there than in the southern islands. We then head to Koh Samui for three nights, including a ferry trip across to Koh Phan Yang for the full moon party on New Years Eve and finishing up with a week in Phuket on our way home. I am VERY excited about the trip!!
To finish off, I have to say a HUGE thanks to everyone who has helped me make my riding goals happen this year. My parents, without their support (like many riders) I would not be doing what I love. My vets, Kirsten Niel and Simon Bray, who both help me out whenever I need them; Katrina Varcoe-Cocks, without your magic fingers the horses and I would certainly not be able to do what we do. The grooms who have helped me out at various events and at home this year - you know who you are, and I thank you 1000 times over! My coaches, Megan Jones and Jamie Coman, who continue to fit me in and be very generous with their time, despite how busy they are themselves. My friends and gorgeous partner, who are endlessly understanding of the fact that when the competition season is on, I disappear off the face of the earth. And lastly, my four legged team, I am blessed with two horses that I love, that inspire me to keep riding through the wind rain and heat, that help me to be better every week and that try their guts out for me!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone out there!
See you in 2014!!! WOOHOO!!! :-)
Best Riding,
Nicole
