Ep 171: Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help
One of the big mistakes that I made early on in my career was being ashamed or insecure about asking others for help.
When I hung my shingle out and advertised myself as a trainer, I felt like asking for help meant that I didn’t know what I was doing. Early in my career, this thought process really held me back from progressing my skills as a trainer.
I can think of probably a thousand times where, if I would have had the courage to ask the right person for help, it would have sped up my training and my progression as a trainer. It’s just human nature that we all have those insecurities, and as a result, we struggle with asking for help in so many areas of our lives.
But, here’s the reality of life: Nobody knows everything about everything!
It’s okay if you stumble and struggle and have to get help — that’s the quickest route to getting better in a shorter amount of time. Granted, there were a lot of things I figured out on my own eventually; but it took me much longer than it should have. I just needed to swallow my pride and ask the right person for their help.
I always say that everybody who rides or works with horses is a trainer — we are continually reinforcing or creating good and bad habits with our horses on a daily basis. As trainers, our philosophy should be that we are going to continue to get better until the day we leave this earth. Horses and the western industry are continually evolving, so it’s up to us to either evolve with it and continue learning, or to stay where we are at and get left behind.
I’m 58 years young, and to this day, if I am struggling or have hit a wall I just can’t seem to get through, I reach out to someone and get help. My philosophy in training and in life is that I don’t need to be an expert in every area; I just need to know someone who is an expert in that area.
Each and every day, I encourage you to be open to asking for help and investing in yourself. Whatever that help costs is cheap — you are obtaining information that you will use for the rest of your life, and hopefully, you can pass that knowledge on to others and help them as well. There are so many great resources available to you, so don’t waste your time struggling when the answer is out there. All you have to do is ask for it.
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