Watch Out for Your Blind Spot
Avoid the training trap of confirmation bias.
Avoid the training trap of confirmation bias.
Few things will stand between you and successfully training your horse more than you and your thoughts when those thoughts are defeating and doubtful.
LIMITING YOURSELF
Negative thoughts are often called limiting beliefs because they limit how much you believe you can achieve or succeed. It’s not because you’re incapable of successfully training your horse, it’s simply because unintended (and unwelcome) thoughts might convince you otherwise.
For example, there’s little chance you’ll ever be able to teach your horse flying lead changes if you continually tell yourself you can’t and he can’t. It’s not because either of you are incapable of it, it’s because your belief has placed a self-imposed limit on what you and your horse can achieve together.
Tell yourself that you can train your horse to do a flying change (and work hard to make it happen) and you’ll remove the limit that once stood between you and that training goal. In other words, when you remove limiting beliefs, you remove your limits.
I can’t cook. I’m not good at math. I’m not a morning person.
I can’t sit his trot. I’m not as good as everyone else. I crumble under pressure.
Limiting beliefs are common, and it’s possible you’ve even used a few already today. They’re the sneaky negative thoughts you don’t think you’re thinking, even though you’re thinking them!
The good news is that becoming mindful of them is the key to stopping them. Sometimes they’re just hiding in a kind of mental blind spot and need to be brought out into the light.
YOUR BLIND SPOT
Blind-spot biases are a unique form of limiting belief that lie just below the surface of your awareness (the negative thoughts you don’t think you’re thinking even though you’re thinking them).
They’re called “blind-spot biases” because, like a car hidden in your blind spot, they pose a threat to you because you’re unaware of them. When a car leaves your blind spot, however, the threat it creates leaves too.
Likewise, when negative thoughts leave your mental blind spot (because you become mindful of them), the threat they create also leaves.
I want to introduce you to one kind of blindspot bias that can negatively impact your ability to train your horse fairly and successfully. If you are aware of this blind-spot bias, you can work to remove it from your mental blind spot.
Confirmation bias is one kind of blind-spot bias that exists at the barn and when you are