How to Balance Horses, Work and Life - #249

So I had a discovery call with a very lovely lady the other day and the theme of this, and I think obviously we've chatted a little bit about this before we started recording.

And this lady said to me, I'm trying so hard, but I am actually not doing anything well.

And I think there's so many people can relate to that, you know.

this lady she was riding she was exercising looking after her body so she was fit enough to ride her horse she was building a business she was trying to save money she was trying to have a social life she was trying to be a good wife a good parent she's trying to sleep she's trying to eat she's trying to learn like she's trying to do all of these things and she had a really good question i said great question actually because she said and somehow despite feeling absolutely exhausted i still feel like i'm behind I think this is probably one of the biggest struggles, probably for, you know, for most people.

And we went into this conversation and we talked about how we try and convince ourselves that every single thing is urgent.

Like we have to keep spinning every single freaking plate.

And eventually, you know, we become that one spin in play because, you know, our attention is a finite resource.

Our energy is, our nervous system is, our performance isn't so.

And if you think about performance, it's, you know, a result of where all of those things are invested.

And then actually she went on to talk a little bit about balance.

And you and I both know balance is, you know, an interesting word because in my mind, balance means everything gets equal attention.

But we know really that life doesn't work like that.

You know, sometimes our career has to take centre stage, our job.

Sometimes our horses do.

Sometimes it's your family.

Sometimes it's your health.

Sometimes it's simply surviving.

Life has seasons, huh? And I think trying to make every season contain all of these things at once and simultaneously is absolutely freaking exhausting.

What do you think?

Yeah, no, 100%.

I can see you nodding.

Yeah, I think season is a really good word actually to describe this indeed.

I think in life, with your jobs, with your horses, we often talk about competition seasons, but I think everything kind of goes in seasons.

And when we say season, like you say, a season for me is when you focus intensely on one particular thing and then... you accept that other things, or maybe we don't always accept, but I think you need to learn to accept that when in that season, if it's a season of work, then other things are going to have to take the backseat.

If it's a season of eventing, then other things are going to have to take the backseat.