Is the power of discouragement impacting your dog’s progress?
I wanted to be an artist growing up & I was actually not bad at it.
I loved creating & I enjoyed the process of a blank canvas becoming something beautiful.
But it all started with one teacher discouraging me in primary school. With enough discouragement from her & some teachers in high school, I was deterred for a long time:
I lost passion in something that I could improve in, but it was not only from my discouraging teachers…
It was because I believed that my teacher(s) discouragement was the reality, rather than just an opinion.
The power of discouragement is beyond destructive.
It can hinder progress.
It can stop people from standing up for what they believe in.
And it can stop you from continuing training with your dog.
This power is horrific, dark & it is infuriating for an owner who seems to be trying their best.
The issue with this power is it thrives when you have nothing to pull you out from it. If you remain in it & convince yourself enough that the discouragement is real, it will eventually grow & become real.
So how can we fight something that is so damaging to our souls?
There is a two fold way to do this: one begins with yourself & the other involves others.
There are many things that can impact your ability to focus on looking inward, but it takes actively choosing a time & sitting down with yourself. Being a note taking girlie, I recommend even writing it out like this:
Now that you have a course of actions, this is the time to bring others in. By bringing others in they can do a few things:
Provide a perspective that our emotions prevent us from seeing eg. a trainer pointing out progress you may have missed.
Keep us accountable to our feelings & actions eg. a friend helping remember that we can do this & not to fixate on the perceived failure.
Help us to develop skills to become better at managing our thoughts which allow us to move forward with our goals eg. a therapist helping you develop skills to think in helpful ways.
When I hit 25 I became interested in random creative outlets here & there. I even got into making things for Instagram & yes it sucked at the start but I became better through encouragement from others.
This led to my business being born, but again that would not have stayed if it wasn’t for my husband. I felt like my posts sucked & I sucked as a business owner, but he reminded me that everything in life had been a build up to where I am now.
So I listened & boy am I glad that I did.
My posts only became better, my ebooks look WAY BETTER & I am only improving as a trainer as I go!
And when I felt lost as a trainer, I seeked advice & support from others in the industry & my psychologist. They all play a big part in keeping me afloat.
This can be the same for you too: maybe you do not have supportive friends or family, but you can seek a community of dog lovers (my facebook group is here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1492906888170047/ ) or you can invite me to be a part of it if you are a Geelong dog owner who needs that additional help with your dog training.
It may be hard to fight discouragement, but it is worth the battle when one day you can look at your dog & go:
“We actually did it.”.
