Yesterday I was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend an Equine Facilitated Learning training day with Andrew McFarlane of LeadChange. Andrew has been one of my mentor during the last year whilst I have been establishing Connect-2-Success, my own Equine Inspired Leadership programme. These days are great opportunities to connect with others in this niche sector and also to get some great coaching from the horses.
As readers of my blog will know I believe that horses can be the best teachers of life lessons and yesterday was no exception. Whilst being coached I decided my main coaching outcome was to have fun. I’m acutely aware that running my own businesses I get so wrapped up in what is happening that I forget to enjoy the journey. I remember once my equine mentor Carolyn Resnick telling me “Make sure you enjoy the journey Julia as the destination may not be all you had hoped it will be, and therefore you will be disappointed”. How often do we focus on the end result (destination) and fail to enjoy the process? I know in my experience all too often especially when I was working in a corporate role. We become transfixed by the outcome and fail to notice the successes and achievements along the way. We become tunnelled vision and derive no pleasure from the process. How unfulfilling and boring life can be if we live this way.
So back to my coaching session. There I was intent on having fun with this pony called Prince, and he was well up for having fun too, we were running round the arena like a couple of kids and enjoying ourselves. Suddenly, Andrew asked me to get Prince to half pass along a pole that was on the ground. This meant I needed to get the horse to move horizontally across the pole from left to right. The pole was between Prince’s back and front feet and he needed to cross his back legs and then his front legs so he could move horizontally – no mean feat. I had no idea if Prince (or indeed if I could do this) so I immediately went into task mode. Dissecting the movement into steps and asking for his hind feet to move and then his front feet. Much to my surprise we managed to half pass half the pole and I was delighted. Then Andrew asked me “How much fun was that?” In all honesty, none. My desire to prove I can do the task meant that I forgot about having fun. Reflecting back on my life I realise that virtually every time I focus on a task I forget to have fun. And let’s face it what use is living if there is no fun. So my mantra for this month is to ensure that I have fun in whatever I’ve doing.
Maybe it’s no surprise that I currently enrolled in a programme called “Screw Work, Let’s Play”. It’s all about doing what you love and having fun doing it. For the next 30 days we have to execute a play project – something we love to do and have fun with – that stretches us. Before my experience with Prince I had come up with an idea to write an e-book but now I realise I only chose that because it is something I need to do, not because it will be fun. So I’m back to the drawing board to figure out what fun looks like for me. So whatever you are doing, make a wise choice and have fun doing it because I’m sure you might regret it if you don’t.
I’d love to hear your comments on what constitutes fun for you.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
