Success Principles

Success Principles – When “Stuff” Happens – Tuck and Roll!

A fellow business owner, Tom, runs a successful non-profit for young people with AD – Attachment Disorder called CHILDREN, HOPE and HORSES. The major success principles of this program involves bringing the children together with horses as part of the therapy. Why horses? Because they are extremely smart and intuitive and the kids can’t fool them like they can a human. The horses are not as unconditionally trusting or loving as dogs so they can’t be bullied as easily either. The stories and results are amazing. For more information about CHH – check out CHILDRENHOPEANDHORSES.org. Talking to Tom got me thinking about my own horse lessons and success principles. One particularly timely one has to do with reacting to the unexpected. People are being blind-sided by events in their lives every day. Whether the event is the loss of job, less than positive health news, family or relationship changes – the unexpected can be difficult to plan for. The same can happen when riding horses. “Stuff” happens – horses spook, stumble, shy, buck or stop too quickly. To become a successful rider, we must learn how to fall so we can get back up. Yes, we prefer not to fall at all but “stuff” happens – so one needs to learn how to “Tuck and Roll.”

The Tuck and Roll is taught to help minimize damage to self and others. When flying through the air by no intention of your own, tucking in the extremities and rounding yourself into a ball could help break the impact without breaking bones. Rolling hopefully takes us away from being stomped on or from causing others around us to collide. Think about a jockey falling off during a horse race!

Depending on circumstances, such as in a show ring during bareback class with the judges watching, one may be lucky enough to feel the slippage and be quick witted enough to grab a hold of the mane with both hands, hit the ground feet first and vault back into place – successfully undetected. My best friend, Heidi, was that sort of rider. Of course, sometimes one may blithely try a graceful mount only to land on the other side – on the ground-flat on her back – with her faithful companion still standing in place – looking down at her with curiosity. That would be me. The success comes from getting back up and getting back on. Success principles dictate that we need to do this each and every time. Successful people remount and keep going.

The Success Principle of the Tuck and Roll can be used in everyday life. When chaos happens – drawing yourself inward for protection and getting away from the fray can be very valuable. This takes you away from the chaos so as to avoid being stomped or tripping up others – giving you the advantage of being able to center yourself, to think more clearly and to decide on which action to take. Sure, there will be times when the wind gets knocked out of you – trust me I know firsthand – but the more quickly you can incorporate the Tuck and Roll into your initial reaction the better. There will be less time, pain and damage to be overcome before moving forward again. We want to be able to get back up on our horses as quickly as possible.

Cheers to YOUR SuCCess! ~ Janus Moncur – The Co-Creative Coach™