Transcript for this weeks message

Ladies and gentlemen welcome to this episode of The Horsemanship Journey Podcast. I'm Shane Jacob, your host. The Horsemanship Journey is on the road today in Idaho Falls. I wanted to talk a little bit about today about wanting to do a podcast about the subject of intention. Living with intention, being intentional.

I listened to, probably maybe a lot of you have heard of, Earl Nightingale and his, what's it called, the Strangest Secret. Earl Nightingale and the Strangest Secret. Earl Nightingale was one of the pioneers, one of the leaders of personal development of the whole kind of idea and concept and movement of personal development. And he gave a speech or he had a program called The Strangest Secret, and I think that he released that, I think that he gave that talk in 1968. That was about 56 years ago, quite a while back, I would know.

So in that talk, he said, I listened to it again recently I've heard it several times it's not very long, and I heard him say that it's really easy to, you know, to be in this life, to get by. And he's like, you can get a job and make a living and, you know, and then you kind of, you end up mediocre, you end up broke or whatever, but you can get by and, and you can go through this world. And it's pretty easy was his point. And I thought, man, sometimes it doesn't seem too easy.

And then I thought about it a little bit further and I thought about his point that, you know, it doesn't take a whole bunch of brain effort really just to survive. I think there's a lot, a lot of truth in that. Um, so, you know, I've, I've come to realize that intention, living with intention is optional, okay, because it's just not required. You don't, you don't have to have it that way. So, you know, our brains are set up to where, you know, really comfort is the default.

Our brain, our natural state of our brain, our natural inclination is that we want to seek pleasure, avoid pain, stay efficient, stay unnoticed, and why would we want to do more anyway? I mean, who's got anything against seeking pleasure and avoiding pain? I'm not all that fond of pain. A lot of the time I'm trying to be, I'll come back to that.

To stay efficient and notice, and it all sounds really good, you know? And the thing of it is, is, if it is good, then why do we even care about even doing more? And I think that really, you know, nobody really likes to say that we're just gonna hang out in our comfort zone, because it doesn't sound good. It's not a really popular course, you know? We don't wanna advertise it. We're just, what you doing today? Oh, I'm just living in my comfort zone, you know? Because I think we've put a negative thought when you say comfort zone. But I mean, if you don't think about it, if you're not intentional, you may not have the wherewithal, you might not know, you need a reason, right? We need a reason to go, to get out of comfort, to get out of this seeking pleasure and to do something. So what's the reason? Why would we not wanna live in our comfort zone? Besides, it doesn't sound good to some people, right? Why would we even want to?

And, when I think about this, besides the fact that we don't want to say it, I mean, why would we? Right? Are we really becoming all that we're capable of? No, probably not. We can say that we're definitely not. Are we going to reach our potential? I don't know. Probably not. Do we care if we reach our potential? I mean, why would we want to wake up and seize the day? Attack the day, carpe diem. Why would we want to when we don't need to? I think one of the things that's... I don't know, I've never really, I haven't  needed to create the desire to do more than above average, to be more than... You know, none of us want to say that we're mediocre either, but really, then what's driving us? You know, I don't know.

One of the things, maybe it helps that, you know, are we giving all that we're capable of to the people we love? Okay, because if you're just gonna hang out and live in the comfort zone and let your brain do its default, the answer is you're not, okay? So if that makes a difference to you, then maybe you would want to move out of it. I think I heard once, let me see if I can get this. Russell M. Nelson said that the natural yearnings of our heart for eternal progression is divinely instilled. That's close to the quote. But basically what he's saying that we have divinely been given an inclination to pursue more. Okay, and I think most of us have that a little bit. We just don't know why and it's easier not to.

So I'm giving some ideas to contemplate such as, are we, how can we, or we cannot give all that we can to the people we love unless we're gonna do more. We can't make our significant contribution to the world, make our own individual significant contribution to the world. And you know what? I believe you, and I believe I, and I believe everyone can make a significant contribution to the world. You might not think you can, maybe you don't, I don't know. But if you don't, I'm here to tell you can. You can make a significant contribution to the world if you choose to and if you live on purpose. You know? And I'm here to tell you you're worth it. You are worth it. No one is more important than you. No one is more less important than you, but nobody either, nobody is, nobody is more important than you. And nobody can make a more significant contribution than you're capable of. I believe that at my core.

What about riding and working with horses? Let me tell you something, I used to ride around quite a bit and I learned a lot about horses in life. I learned the most about horses from this one individual and I've ridden with a lot of people. I've taken a lot of lessons. I've taken hundreds and hundreds of lessons. I've ridden, been to clinics, for 30 years, more, 30 years at least. And the person I spent the most time with was Rick Steed. And we were riding around one day, and I was taking a lesson and there was a group of people, there was a group of people a lot of times when we would be taking lessons and I still do. Matter of fact, I went to one of Rick's clinics just last year.

Anyway, we were riding around one time quite a while back and he just, he stopped me and said, stop your horse. I stopped my horse. I looked over at Rick and he says, what are you doing? And I was like, hmm, well, riding, riding around. He's like, what exactly are you trying to accomplish and what are you communicating to your horse? And I was just like, I was a little bit of taken aback because you know really, I didn't have an answer. My answer was, "I don't know." And he says, "Yeah, you don't know, and neither does your horse. Your horse doesn't have a damn clue either."

Okay, so you're not you're not moving towards your result first of all maybe you want to contemplate reckoning having a result, and then working to that end And so, Rick helped me in organizing rides and coming up with a system of organizing rides to ride with intention. And I'm, it was an incredible thing that I've formed into a habit with horses that has an incredible result. So how, how do we actually live on purpose? You know, I mean, how does that go? All right. Maybe I want to, maybe I do have this inside of me that's wanting more.

It's going to be hard. I don't know if I'm going to like it, but maybe I'm going to try to go for it. Okay, so how do we actually live on purpose? How do we accomplish that if we want to? It sounds so good, you know, living with purpose and passion rather than getting by and hanging out in your old comfort zone. So how do we actually get it done? I think that it begins with using our imagination. And let me just tell you something. I interviewed Sean Covey, Stephen Covey's son Sean Covey and we talked about the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People that Stephen Covey wrote. And in that interview, he talked about the imagination. Now, when I was interviewing Sean, my idea of an imagination was kind of like, I didn't get it, basically. And so what I thought was is like, if you like imagination is like for when you're a kid, you know,

It's like when you think that things that are not real and you dream up stories and you're daydreaming and you're wasting a bunch of damn time and you need to be effective and productive and get back to work instead of over there daydreaming. Well, that's not what he meant. And I had to, using your imagination is so important. I think somebody said it's more important than, I don't know, it's extremely important. I can't remember the quotes, I won't even try it. Sean Covey talked about using your imagination to see and live into the future. Okay, and so this is where purpose and Intention start is actually, you know, and it's more difficult to get good at using my imagination.

I don't know how it is for you but using your imagination is what he meant and what is meant by using your imagination What I want to mean by it today is looking into your own future talking and seeing and becoming seeing, vividly seeing your future self, right? What does he or she look like? What do they do? What are all the details? How do they feel? What do they, how do they go about? And what, and just being able to see, to like look into a crystal ball and see the future is what your imagination is. And it's a skill. It's a skill that takes a little bit of time to develop, to keep your mind focused, and to actually begin to see what could be possible and to think about, to have the thoughts of what could be possible for you in the future.

The other thing that Stephen Covey was big on is a mission statement. And I finally, at a later stage in life, finally I wrote my own constitution or mission statement and it was life-changing for me. If you haven't taken the time to do that, I highly recommend. This is the how. To use the imagination to see. And a mission statement is another tool that I've found to be extremely helpful in this. Because you're stating what you're about. What you want to accomplish in this lifetime. And you can do it.

For example, mine begins, the purpose of my remaining time here on Earth is to continually improve and develop my soul. To endeavor to master my thoughts and therefore my results. Use all of the talent and ability that I've been given to become all that I can imagine and desire to be. And it goes on from there, but it doesn't have to be a novel. This is just an idea, a constitution, a guiding principle that guides your life.

So just taking the time as part of intention to decide what you're going to be about for between now, you know, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you're 94, 84 or 14. It doesn't matter where you're at in your journey, tomorrow and the rest of today is when you can live with intention, more intention, and more purposeful. So what I'm saying is, is the fact that I didn't become to be guided by my mission statement until late in life doesn't, I mean, I wouldn't say it's ideal. I would say if it's available to you and I recommend it. Using the mission statement or a constitution, taking the time to do that, using that tool now, regardless of where you're at or whatever your age is.

The Earl Nightingale in what I talked about at the beginning was in his talk, The Strangest Secret, he also talks about, his definition of success. In pursuit of a worthy goal, you are successful. And basically, goals are the measure of our intentionality. If we don't have goals, if we don't have a mission statement, then if we don't know where we're going, how are we gonna get there? If we don't, we're just wandering around in life's maze.

I did a podcast this morning and it was Avoid the Maze. Avoid the Confusion is the title of it. Podcast is called Avoid the Maze that was on in it. And you know, when we're kind of in a maze, and how can we clearly define where we're going and get there if we don't have goals, they measure our intentionality. So taking the time to actually have goals, to have stated written goals is the next tool. And then here's a big one, okay?

We're talking about goals and we're talking about imagination. We're talking about a mission statement. But how about this? Okay. The habit of consistently reviewing your progress. Okay. Forming a habit of consistently reviewing where you're at. I've decided where I'm going. Now I'm off. And then, you know, a lot of times just like the new year's resolutions, we make all the goals and we do that. And by the way, there is credit. You should take credit for what you have done. Right. Just doing that.

You've already done more than what a lot of people do as far as living your life on purpose. But then a lot of times that we don't follow through because we haven't formed the habit of consistently reviewing our progress. Why? A lot of times one of the reasons is we just get busy, we forget, and we move out of intention. We let life happen to us instead of making our life happen. Designing our life. You know, I always liked that phrase when I heard it. Design your life. You know?

Goals to me, they sound hard too. It's like, ah, goals. It's like, ah, what if I don't, they sound like a lot of work, you know, to write, do a goal and you gotta write it down and everything and then read it out loud and all that. But you know, designing your life, now that, that was it for me, you know, because it's the same thing and it just sounds better than I was all about. I wanna design my life, you know. Whatever it is for you, I would suggest that goals and designing your life is the same, however, you wanna say it, but we get the chance.

I mean, we get the opportunity to put it together however we want. And so why wouldn't we? Why wouldn't we? And back to why don't we consistently review the progress? Maybe a lot of times the reason is, well, one of the reasons that we don't consistently review the progress, yeah, we get busy and we didn't do it. And so then we just like, Ahem, I don't even want to think about it. We think about it. We keep pushing it aside.

And so. I would suggest, this is a big thing, okay, I would suggest that when you make a commitment to yourself that you are serious about getting it done, that you're serious about getting it done, okay? Even if it's some, even if you don't know if you can achieve it, I would at least make a commitment to yourself that you intend to keep. If you're gonna go to the effort to write down a mission statement or write down a goal, my suggestion is to make it. Make it serious like I'm going for it all. Because when you don't and when you push it aside, when you don't keep your promises to yourself, now that doesn't mean that you're going to achieve every goal that you get to. Remember because I agree with Earl Nightingale that the success is the pursuit of your worthy goals. Of whatever they are because if you make the goal and you attempt as long as you're out there and as long as you're still going after it, you're keeping your promise to yourself.

It's important to keep promises to ourselves. And when none of us are perfect at it, sometimes I kind of suck at it really. But a lot of the time I'm getting better at it and I'm telling you, I wanna trust me, okay? And I think you wanna trust you. I know you wanna trust you. If you don't know, I'm telling you, you wanna trust you. You wanna be trustworthy to yourself. And it influences how you act and how you move towards your goals. And it influences how you feel about yourself and who you believe that you are and how much faith and belief that you have in yourself. So I'm telling you that I would recommend that when you do a mission statement and your goals, that you really think about them and be serious about them.

And then when you're done, that you commit to moving towards them, okay, instead of just letting them go. And then that you form the habit. And it's gonna take a little while and you might not get it every time. It may take some. You form the habit, I didn't finish that sentence, form the habit of consistently reviewing your progress. I've worked on this one day a week, myself and my wife, and we look at where we're at and where we're going. We try to look at not only where we're going tomorrow, but where we're going in the future between now and the end of our life. We're trying to map that out piece by piece.

And so the habit of consistently reviewing the progress is a big one and that's a lot of the time where we can drop the ball. So that's a big piece of this tool, big piece of the pie here. What about intention with our horses? Okay. What about how do we go about being intentional with our horses? Because they know, they know what's going on. If we don't know what's going on, they don't know what's going on. They're just as confused and going around in this maze spinning their wheels and really not feeling accomplished or they're just not able to be the kind of partner that we want them to be or that they even want to be for us, that they're capable of, without intention.

So how do you go about doing this? Rick, I mentioned he taught me some skills and gave me some tools to be able to do this, and it's pretty simple really. It's just creating a writing or working plan each time. So before I put my foot in the stirrup, I can say out loud what I'm doing, exactly what I'm going to do. If I'm working on schooling a horse or even if I'm going to go for just a pleasure ride or whatever, before I step on, I have a plan in my mind and it's so clear that I can say it out loud and a lot of times, most of the time I say it out loud so that I'm clear on it. Right?

Because if you can say it out loud, then you have clarity for yourself in it and then you can transmit that to your horse. So what does that look like? Well, today I'm going to go through, I'm going to do X amount of circles this way. I'm going to work on the right side because it did this and then I'm going to do that and then I lay out my system of what I'm going todo now Not very often does the system I lay out go from start to finish and end up the way that I thought it would be So I have to have inside of each one of my rides and works with my horses I have built in a stop and evaluate.

Same, I have the habit of consistently reviewing my progress because I'm in the relationship with the horse and I can influence him, but he has his own free will, so he may not follow exactly my plan, right? So when he deviates from my plan, I have to stop, reevaluate, and see what adjustments I'm gonna make to my plan, and so that's kind of how it goes. But the point is, Just getting on and hoping for a better result, it doesn't work well. As a matter of fact, a lot of times you come away and your horse is worse off.

You took a little going down rather than improving, you moved further away from your desired result if you're not careful. And horses are quick and easy learners. You know what I'm saying? If you teach them something wrong, they'll pick up on it in no time. And we can do that if we're not riding with intention. We really can, it's very simple to create bad habits with horses. So I recommend creating a writing plan that doesn't have to be big and complex and it doesn't have to be this big old spreadsheet that takes you a half hour to go through. What I'm saying is just do, if you're gonna do it, do it on purpose and know what you're doing. And if you can say it out loud, then you know what you're doing. You set priorities inside of it as what the most important thing is. I do that with I'm writing. Am I working on where his feet go? Am I working on his suppleness? What is the most important part of this?

And then the big thing is, like I said, is to stop and evaluate as things change and as things progress on a consistent basis of forming that habit. So you know, here's the deal, guys. I appreciate you being with me because I think that something is inside of you that wants more, that wants more, that wants to get up and attack the day, that believes that it's life versus you and that you can be better and do better every day. You know, and the thing of it is today is the only day that you and I are going to get. This is the only matter of fact chance that this life is going to get. So between now and the end of the day and now the end of this life, let's live it on purpose.

And remember, Don't Ever Stop Chasing It.

‍