Who are the experts in the arena who are putting up mental obstacles for you? Well, somebody who's been in the sport longer than you. Learn to overcome the "tigers" in the barrel racing arena. You alone decide your mood, beliefs and attitudes on what you want in the arena.
When you're ready to grow in a particular area, realize that first you need to change your subconscious picture of yourself. It's actually much easier and more efficient to simply adjust your comfort zone rather than to try harder in order to change your behavior. You need to expand your comfort zone first, before you change your behavior and in order to expand your comfort zone in a particular area you must change your self-image in that area.
Our self-talk is the one thing we do have control over. By learning how to control your self-talk, a fascinating phenomenon called visualization begins to take place. And just as one rider told me on numerous occasions, no matter the location – an airplane, the alley way, a hotel room, at home with the family – she is constantly visualizing perfect runs, perfect turns, and incredibly strong resilient bounce backs from the inevitable defeats.
I want you to try your best to be aware of your self-talk. Listen to what you're saying to yourself in different circumstances, and listen carefully. I'm not talking about what you're saying out loud as much has what you're thinking about all the time.
