That Sense of Adventure

I nearly fell off Zodiac, my horse, laughing as my youngster Hookey Hoo insisted on exploring my neighbour’s courtyard and then her barn. Ella, who works with me, is a very accomplished horsewoman and yet she was being “taken” on an adventure not of her making!!

This particular incident tickled me as it very unusual for a horse, who typically finds safety by being part of a herd, to choose to leave his friend and go off exploring. I am curious about what it is that inspires this sense of adventure in a pony so young, and delighted that he so confident in himself.

I find myself thinking about my own sense of adventure and how I approach new and unfamiliar situations. How comfortable am I with coping with, or even relishing, the unexpected? Do I actively seek out new experiences? Am I confidently searching for adventures like my young pony?

I often tell attendees on my programmes to “expect the unexpected”. When we are working with horses we never really know what will happen; I do know that whatever happens there will be learning opportunities. As I encourage people to step out of their comfort zone and into a new experience, to explore things from a different perspective, I trust that they will find a way to tap into their latent talent and find valuable learning in the unexpected.

Learning to perform well in, what NLP calls, a “state of not knowing” is often considered as a benchmark for how confident you are in yourself and your abilities; an embodiment of the NLP presupposition, “we have within us all of the resources we will ever need”.

What is your approach to something new? Do you embrace it with an attitude of curiosity, trusting that you will find learning whatever the situation?”

Perhaps go a step further and challenge yourself as Robert Schuller did with this famous quote “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?”