Animal training and behavior is an exciting field to be a part of right now! It’s changing and growing so fast. Every day I am seeing new creative and thoughtful training procedures on social media. We are considering the preferences and emotions of our animals more than ever. This is wonderful!
But, its also a lot to keep up with! It is so easy to put tons of pressure on ourselves to keep up with it all. To fix it all and solve it all and train it all. But each goal takes time and even my eager-to-work border collies can only train so much in one day. For most of us, life is busy in general too. We have to balance pet care with caring for our homes, our relationships, our self-care, and our careers. It can be paralyzing. It can lead to getting “stuck”.
When I get overwhelmed and bogged down by all of this stuff, my mom will say “be gentle with yourself”.
I have been focusing on putting this at the top of the list. And in turn, it has meant I am able to be more clear-minded about the goals I have. I’ve been able to take more actionable steps towards reaching them and I have not been “stuck” as often.
Be gentle with yourself.
Treat yourself with the same empathy and compassion that you would show for your animal partner. Choose one or two main goals. Think about breaking your goals down in to small, easy to accomplish steps. Try not to focus on the things you haven’t done yet. Instead, focus on what you are accomplishing. Take a little data so you can see your progress over time. If you feel yourself becoming overwhelmed with your goals, take a break. Do something to allow yourself decompress before you circle back to working towards your goals again. Be gentle with yourself.
