Away at a business conference  (which I wrote about in my newsletter yesterday — I hope you got yours) I ended up volunteering to stand up on stage in front of 500 participants. Thinking about me throwing my hat in the ring to get up on stage I realize how events like that can be revealing for people.  Is that something many of you would do? Any of you that know me, know I am not afraid to be on stage, quite the opposite, I am very comfortable in front of any size crowd. But what about you? Would you rather be one of the crowd or put yourself out there? For me my outgoing nature has not always been the norm.

I remember as a wee girl hiding behind my mothers legs not wanting to talk to relatives at family reunions. Of course that phase in my life was past very early on but how did I go from one extreme to the next? I think it is why we move forward with anything in our life. Practice is the answer. Rehearsals of success.

Believe it or not, something like this is a big part of improving your mental prep for sport, it contributes to calming the butterflies before you step into the ring. It is true. Every time you put yourself in a position you may currently find uncomfortable, you are actually reducing the discomfort for yourself the next time around. The more you do things you might otherwise be “embarrassed” by you learn not to be afraid of what may happen if . . . You start to dissolve that fear of the unknown, the fear of failing.

Now that we are getting into the “off season” of agility for many of us, it is a time to look at fine tuning our skills. Traditionally, you may be using this time just to work on your dogs skills but it may be time to turn your magnify glass on your own weaknesses, things that you can do to improve yourself for your dog.

Today I am grateful for new friends, what a great group of people I got to hang with over the past three days.