Do you find it Difficult to Imagine yourself as a Calm, Confident, Centred Competitor?

Pattern Interrupt

Mental Skills Coaching is all about Interrupting Patterns. We want to move from our OLD Identity of being anxious, flustered and shaky on show mornings, to our NEW Identity of channeling a cool, calm, confident competitor. Here's how:

This is a blog I wrote a few years ago. It came up again at the beginning of 2025, and the timing is perfect for me to revisit this concept. Have a read and see if it speaks to you, too.

With the year in full swing, and shows coming up think and fast, I realise it’s been a while since I touched base. I have been working so hard on the next exciting addition to the Forging Ahead Mental Skills offering. This project has been in the pipeline for more than a year, and I am super excited to let you know that it’s almost, just about, nearly, nearly, ready!

I've had my head down, and my nose stuck in my computer, for what seems like forever! I've had to learn a whole new set of skills, and my goodness, the learning curve has been steep!

(Oh my word, this is still so true for me! I am still head down, stuck in my computer, trying to figure out how the next piece of tech works!)

It got me to thinking about how we like to find a groove in our lives - a "happy place" where we feel comfortable and reasonably confident. A comfort zone, where we know what to expect of ourselves, how we will act, speak, think and be, in most circumstances.

This is what, in coaching terms, we call our Old Identity. The way things are. Usually people come to a coaching process because they want to dream into a New Identity. A different way of being, of responding, of acting and thinking. When you decide it’s time to move up a grade, for example. Or you make it into a team and have to compete for your province.

Sometimes it’s because a New Identity has been thrust upon you, like moving from riding ponies to riding horses. For many riders, they come to mental skills coaching because they want to be cool, calm and confident when they enter the show arena, instead of anxious, shaky and flustered.

The rather awkward rule about how we do life is that the longer we’ve been doing something a particular way, the harder it is to imagine ourselves doing it differently. Part of the coaching process is to create what we call a “Pattern Interrupt”. We have to find a way to interrupt the pattern of being anxious and tense at shows, and replace it with something more useful and productive. Then we have to practice doing things the new way, even while we still feel the old way, for as long as it takes for us to start believing that we can do the new way.

And here’s the thing:

Us humans are more likely to ACT our way into a new way of thinking, than we are to THINK our way into a new way of acting. That old adage: Fake it til you Make it - has some truth to it.

So, how does this relate to me and my computer skills?

My early career years were spent client facing. I was making money when I was in front of a client. Not when I was doing admin, or emails, or any of the tech related things that fill our lives nowadays. It’s been a massive shift for me to realise that I really CAN serve people from learning more about how to take my business more online. I have been leaning into this uncomfortable place, and teaching myself how to do so many tech related things.

I’m learning to challenge myself in new ways to do things where I previously just automatically said: “I can’t do that – I don’t know how.” This newsletter comes to you courtesy of new software, that I’ve learnt how to operate, step by step. I am interrupting my pattern of not being “tech savvy”. My New Identity is that of a Guru-in-Training for online business. I never would have dreamt that title before, let alone written it down!

I have a sign up above my desk. It says: STOP saying you can’t. You CAN and you WILL. You just have to prioritise it.

So far it’s really helped me to refocus and lean into the places where I start doubting myself.

So, with that being said, please watch your in box for The Next Step. I can’t wait to show it to you!

Take care

Love Linda