It’s Too Late To Fail

I hope you never get to this point. You, you future generations of working students, interns, trainers-in-training, I hope you never reach the point that I did, but if you do, remember this: I was several years into my professional endeavor with horses when I started feeling drained and demoralized. I was burnt out, yes, but it was more than that. I wasn’t feeling that same spark, that passion and excitement that had always accompanied my work with horses. It really began to perturb me and I spent days mulling it over. I realized I need to reemphasize love. Love was the reason I was there and I needed to pay attention to that.

If you future generations get into this spiral of exhaustion and defeat, remember that this is first and foremost a love affair, then a passion, then a career, and then a job. If you turn that logic around, you will make decisions differently. If you start with love, you start with consideration of those you love. You start and end each day with the decision to love and consider the animals in your care. But, that is not the end, no no, that is the very beginning. Then you dedicate yourself, all of yourself, to this. You learn and you don’t stop. You seek more knowledge, more understanding of what you love. Then you find your people. People that help you on your path. You build connections, a network of those you call on for help, advice, or just to talk. Then it is your job to take all of those things: your love, passion, knowledge, understanding, network and connections, and then you create. What you create is up to you. You are building your path. Others may join you, but you must walk every step. 

Remember that you don’t do this for anyone else. You don't do this for your trainer, your coach, your family, your friends, or even your country. That is not, and cannot, ever be happiness. You started down this path for you, and you alone. Don’t you ever forget that you had to wrest your dreams from the jaws of those that said failure. Don’t you ever forget you wrote them down, dreamed them up, and figured them out. This is no time to let that die. You walk a path despite, not in spite of them. You got too focused on figuring out what others wanted from you, that you forgot to ask yourself. You got so concerned about what others thought, that you disregarded what you wanted. That’s why you were unsure. That’s why your spark dimmed. You hadn’t lost your voice at all, you had just stopped listening. You haven’t lost your passion, you just strayed. Remember what you love.

And now? What are you scared of? Take control of your story. What is holding you back? Keeping you anxious? You have nothing to lose, and everything you love to gain. So I ask again. What are you afraid of? Failure? Says who? The only way you fail is by not trying. But it is too late even for that, you are already trying.