We Ride Sport and Trail Magazine June 2017 | Page 16

Professional Cutting Horse Trainer, Personal Performance Coach, Author, Clinician, and Equine Consultant. In 2012 Barbra was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame

Do you ever feel like you get numb to learning? I didn’t say numb to wanting to learn. I mean numb to actually absorbing the info. Often we want a quick solution to what’s bugging us … and right NOW.

We want what we want so badly that we might gloss over wonderful tidbits of information that could appear in ways we least expected them to show up because we weren’t paying attention.

Those tidbits we ignored might have given us a different but equally important puzzle piece. Perhaps we not only didn’t take advantage of that unannounced little gem of wisdom right under our nose, but we snubbed it.

I went to a seminar recently that had nothing to do with horses. What the speaker shared at the beginning of the event hit home for me. He said three things block learning in a big way. He was warning us in advance and he wanted none of that in his seminar. He was so right. Throughout the three days, I found myself tempted to especially do #1 and #3!

So now I want to share these with you so you don’t miss opportunities to learn. Here are three bad actors that block learning:

1. “I know that.”

When someone starts talking and we think we already know what they’re saying, we turn off. We have busy brains and why waste brain time on something we already know? Bad idea!

There are so many layers of understanding to any topic. When people who are knowledgeable speak about something we think we already know … listen for layers. Listen for words and intonations that depict importance and meaning … and maybe even something you really didn’t know.

16 / Sport and Trail Magazine

Aponi Photography

2. “I disagree.”

That’s another shut off statement for our brains. Again, we block hearing another person’s entire take on a situation.

If we stop listening, how would we ever glean a bite size piece of wisdom buried in there somewhere? We don’t have to swallow anything hook, line and sinker. It’s about each one of us deciding what nuances fit out own style. You may disagree with one part, but don’t shut down. You might miss something that would help you.

3. Totally engage. Eliminate distractions.

Turn off the cell phone. Turn off the cell phone. Turn off the cell phone. If you want to really absorb information, you must be totally present and focused. This one is a hard one for we busy brainers! We’ve got things to do and people to keep track of in texts, on FaceBook and in emails. When we want to learn, we each have to take responsibility to turn off the distractions. Again, I found myself wanting to reach for my phone, but I didn’t!

For the most part, I was a

pretty good girl!

3 THINGS

THAT BLOCK LEARNING

bY bARBRA sCHULTE

www.barbraschulte.com