So I did this thing

Im rereading a book these days called Adversity Advantage to reacquaint myself with some of the concepts before sharing with my students this fall. Some of my students really struggle with self awareness and behaviour control when working in team settings.

One of the many concepts is on building your capacity to leverage Adversity as an opportunity, to crystallize your Why, and to strengthen your Ego. The concept is titled AWE. While the first two pieces are intuitive, it does often seem more socially acceptable to overweight on humility vs ego.

There is good research to show that in negotiations and interpersonal relationships, a healthy and measured ego and sense of self-worth play a strong part in setting ambitious goals and reaching for something that might stretch you out of your comfort zone.

So yesterday, while heading out on trail for the first time in weeks with our lovely intern C, she followed me in to a warm-up trot down the trail. Within a minute, I decided to do a thing.

I dropped the reins on to the horn and held out my arms. I could hear her chuckle behind me as Q didn’t skip a beat. After showing off and laughing at my own ego, I realized that Q was doing great. So I put my hands on my thighs and just decided to see if we could do the whole stretch like that. Midway through, I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and recorded a snip.

Today might be a good day to try some bridleless in the arena. Thank you ego.