Why Aren't You Making Progress? (There is nothing wrong with you)

Why Aren't You Making Progress? (There is nothing wrong with you)

Over the years as a teacher, I have pondered this conundrum, and learned a lot about how people's mind works (admittedly I have a LONG way to go, but I'd like to believe I've come a long way from my 20's when I thought you just had to work harder).

It is a common spot for many folks to be in where they are simply not progressing. I think it's important to find the root of your why - why you do this in the first place, and why you are stuck. And no, it is not because you are not capable.

Here are just two reasons you might not be progressing:

1- You think you are not capable, or feel ashamed

If there is anything I have learned, it's that shame is stifling. If you feel that you are not gifted, too old, too scared, too whatever - it will be very hard to find yourself progressing because these beliefs grab hold of your body and almost cripple it.

Whether these are things you told yourself or someone else told you, I want you to consider the possibililty at least that they are not true - that your body and mind as long as you are upright are still capable of learning, growing, and improving, even if that ability looks different than someone else's. I've met plenty of talented folks who are less motivated to practice and crumple when they meet a road block, and I've met plenty of folks facing age and physical challenges who would surprise the hell out of you with their tenacity and capability. So don't sell yourself short in either category - you are far more resilient than you think.

2- You feel overwhelmed and confused, afraid to make a mistake

This one is really common, especially in this age of information. Everyone out there has their method, everyone warns of what not to do and it's always countering to someone else's input. It can be so overwhelming, confusing, frustrating and even downright demoralizing.

I've met so many folks in the last five years who have tried to cobble together six or seven different training ideologies and found themselves completely bogged down at a certain point. It's hard to go forward here because these cobbled together projects rarely form a cohesive set of basics in any one direction and so there will continuously be road blocks and set backs. it's pretty hard to learn if you can't catch the horse, or trailer the horse, or get the horse saddled and so on - and so these can be places where it's easy to remain stuck, since there are so many ideas on how to create each one of these things.

At a certain point, many people here become so overwhelmed they essentially quit trying to progress. It's really easy here to justify it with gaining more knowledge without gaining more experience or understanding - every course and clinic and such will give you knowledge, but it does not become understanding until it is applied.

And unfortuantely, to gain experience and understanding, you must become comfortable with a healthy amount of mistakes. So what is the fear here of making a mistake? It definitely doesn't help that there is a strong and pervasive message out there that everything from breathing near a horse to riding it is damaging, and you will be a "bad" person if you make mistakes - which goes back to point number one - that old shame.

I challenge you to find one person you admire who is perfect - mistakes are part of it. They're either screwing up at least to some degree, or hiding it. If they can screw up, why can't you? You deserve the freedom to practice and try, and with that, will come some messes.

Of course there are many more, but in the interest of not making this article ten thousand words, I'll stick with these two.

Very common, very normal reasons that you might be stuck - If you find yourself in either of these categories, I find the best advice is to treat yourself like a horse.

You'd never judge your horse for making a mistake - don't you deserve the same treatment as your horse?

You'd never judge a horse for their fear, but instead support them - don't you deserve that too?

Train yourself like a horse, and if you can, find a good teacher who believes in you - and you'll find yourself back on the horse, literally and figuratively.