It never ceases to amaze me the lessons my horses teach me about life, and today, Christmas Day, is no exception.  My friend Maria and I decided to take my two horses Toby and Charlie for a walk in the woods along with her dog Zac.  We were just leading the horses on foot due to the icy ground conditions.  Maybe it was the exuberant energy of Zac or the bell on the end of my Xmas hat that kept ringing but the horse’s energy was really high which for my two boys is pretty unusual.

Often when we lead them out on foot (as we do quite often) it is a case of trying to encourage the horses to move forward. Today, they were no a mission, and there was no stopping them.  As we entered one of the large fields Charlie’ s energy rose even more as he connected to his racing instincts and thought momentarily about racing off.  When you have half a ton of horse on the end of a rope your instincts are to keep the rope short so that you can control the horse.  What are we deluding ourselves to?.  There is no way – me weighing some 63kg has any chance of controlling that half ton of weight.  If he wants to run that is exactly what he will do and nothing will stop him.  And yet, when I had faith and actually loosened my grip on the rope and made it slack, thereby letting go of the control, Charlie’s energy dropped and he slowed down.

This made me think about how often in my own life, especially when life seems like it is spiralling out of control, that holding on tightly is just about the worst thing that you can do. Surrender to what is happening around you and let go and often the most unexpected outcomes arise.  Did I think that by loosening my grip on Charlie’s rope that he would slow down?. No not really, but I had faith and just by letting go of the outcome and yielding control to something greater an amazing result happened.

I am reminded too of all the times in my corporate life when often I micro-managed my team.  My need to be in control to ensure the correct outcome was so strong that I never allowed my team members to “race off”.  How different the outcome might had been had I given them that power and loosened my control over them.  Interesting food for thought on this Christmas Day.

So as we enjoy the Holidays take time to think about your own life and what might be achieved if you have the courage to let go.

Seasons Greetings to Everyone

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