Getting Past the Idea
This may sound a little ridiculous, but I hope you'll bear with me, because I'm going to tell you a story about a llama.
My family and I moved out of the city to an acreage when I was in grade five. This was due to the accumulation of horses that were being boarded at several different barns. Naturally, moving to a farm was going to be the cost effective route in that venture (I wouldn't suggest it if I were you). The obvious thing to do when you move to a farm is to become a farmer, so we became shepherds. However, it turns out we were not very good farmers. We learned a lot the hard way.
Now, for those of you that don't know much about sheep, there is only one important thing for you to learn. Sheep aren't very bright and they certainly are not capable of protecting themselves from predators. This is where the llama enters the story. Llamas make surprisingly good protectors for sheep. They bond with the lambs and can be quite vicious when predators attack. Before the herd of sheep arrived on the property, my mom bought a llama and named him Amos. He spent the first three weeks that we owned him residing in our horse pasture while the horses lived in the riding arena. That all went smoothly. Transitioning Amos from the pasture to being leader of our herd of sheep on the other hand, not so much. The day that our sheep arrived we spent the better part of three hours trying to rope Amos. He wasn't keen on being caught and removed from his field. Upon capture, we lead him over to the sheep field to take up residence with the herd that had freshly arrived. Once we got him in the field we closed the gate and my mom removed his halter as to not risk getting him hung up on anything.
This is the part none of us were expecting: Amos decided he wasn't fond of sheep and exited stage left at a very rapid speed. That was the day we learned that llamas are pretty decent jumpers. He took one look at the sheep, turned around, jumped the fence and proceeded to run past his old home before hightailing it straight down the neighbour's alfalfa field and disappearing out of sight.
The next week was spent corralling the sheep every night while my mother and I slept in our horse trailer, so that we would be available to protect them should any coyotes arrive for dinner. At one point my mom and dad almost got our mini van stuck when they sighted the llama on the way home from work and tried following him. My mom even called the local radio station to report our missing llama. Finally, Amos was spotted hiding in a field about three miles from home. It only took a quad, a horse, two friends and some fence panels to run him down and capture him by chasing him into the pen we created. We trailered him home, set the panels up beside the corral and put Amos in his time out corner. That night we corralled the sheep as usual, slept in the horse trailer and let Amos think about his life. The next morning when we released the sheep into the field, Amos went completely berserk. He tried climbing out of the pen to get to the sheep while screaming to them as they headed down the field.
Take two. We lead him into the field and removed his halter. He never left. And in seven years of owning sheep we never lost a single one to a coyote.
Okay, you're probably beginning to wonder where I'm going with this, so here is my point: we are a lot like Amos. When faced with what looked like an insurmountable situation, he panicked and left. It took some friends, some alone time and another opportunity to get past the idea.
Getting past the idea is probably the hardest part of success. Most people that fail, fail before they even start. The doubts that come up, the uncertainty, often lead to the graveyard of ideas. Any great success story begins with someone who took the first step and got out of their comfort zone. We all know how much we dislike being uncomfortable, but it's outside of that zone that we experience the most growth and likely the most success.
Success will never come if you aren't willing to be stretched and reach that new level of uncomfortable. Often all it takes is time to process your thoughts and work up the courage. Sometimes it is a kick in the pants from a friend or mentor that gets you started. However, it is a lot less often that that second opportunity arises, where you're given that chance to move forward with your idea. Getting past the idea can be mentally challenging, but it is nowhere close the feeling of unmet dreams, unaccomplished goals and dead ideas. So if you have an idea or dream, I beg of you, don't let that difficult first step be the step the stops you. If you're that friend on the other side of the situation, give them that shove of encouragement. Success may not happen overnight, but it will never happen if you don't get started.
My family and I moved out of the city to an acreage when I was in grade five. This was due to the accumulation of horses that were being boarded at several different barns. Naturally, moving to a farm was going to be the cost effective route in that venture (I wouldn't suggest it if I were you). The obvious thing to do when you move to a farm is to become a farmer, so we became shepherds. However, it turns out we were not very good farmers. We learned a lot the hard way.
Now, for those of you that don't know much about sheep, there is only one important thing for you to learn. Sheep aren't very bright and they certainly are not capable of protecting themselves from predators. This is where the llama enters the story. Llamas make surprisingly good protectors for sheep. They bond with the lambs and can be quite vicious when predators attack. Before the herd of sheep arrived on the property, my mom bought a llama and named him Amos. He spent the first three weeks that we owned him residing in our horse pasture while the horses lived in the riding arena. That all went smoothly. Transitioning Amos from the pasture to being leader of our herd of sheep on the other hand, not so much. The day that our sheep arrived we spent the better part of three hours trying to rope Amos. He wasn't keen on being caught and removed from his field. Upon capture, we lead him over to the sheep field to take up residence with the herd that had freshly arrived. Once we got him in the field we closed the gate and my mom removed his halter as to not risk getting him hung up on anything.
This is the part none of us were expecting: Amos decided he wasn't fond of sheep and exited stage left at a very rapid speed. That was the day we learned that llamas are pretty decent jumpers. He took one look at the sheep, turned around, jumped the fence and proceeded to run past his old home before hightailing it straight down the neighbour's alfalfa field and disappearing out of sight.
The next week was spent corralling the sheep every night while my mother and I slept in our horse trailer, so that we would be available to protect them should any coyotes arrive for dinner. At one point my mom and dad almost got our mini van stuck when they sighted the llama on the way home from work and tried following him. My mom even called the local radio station to report our missing llama. Finally, Amos was spotted hiding in a field about three miles from home. It only took a quad, a horse, two friends and some fence panels to run him down and capture him by chasing him into the pen we created. We trailered him home, set the panels up beside the corral and put Amos in his time out corner. That night we corralled the sheep as usual, slept in the horse trailer and let Amos think about his life. The next morning when we released the sheep into the field, Amos went completely berserk. He tried climbing out of the pen to get to the sheep while screaming to them as they headed down the field.
Take two. We lead him into the field and removed his halter. He never left. And in seven years of owning sheep we never lost a single one to a coyote.
Okay, you're probably beginning to wonder where I'm going with this, so here is my point: we are a lot like Amos. When faced with what looked like an insurmountable situation, he panicked and left. It took some friends, some alone time and another opportunity to get past the idea.
Getting past the idea is probably the hardest part of success. Most people that fail, fail before they even start. The doubts that come up, the uncertainty, often lead to the graveyard of ideas. Any great success story begins with someone who took the first step and got out of their comfort zone. We all know how much we dislike being uncomfortable, but it's outside of that zone that we experience the most growth and likely the most success.
Success will never come if you aren't willing to be stretched and reach that new level of uncomfortable. Often all it takes is time to process your thoughts and work up the courage. Sometimes it is a kick in the pants from a friend or mentor that gets you started. However, it is a lot less often that that second opportunity arises, where you're given that chance to move forward with your idea. Getting past the idea can be mentally challenging, but it is nowhere close the feeling of unmet dreams, unaccomplished goals and dead ideas. So if you have an idea or dream, I beg of you, don't let that difficult first step be the step the stops you. If you're that friend on the other side of the situation, give them that shove of encouragement. Success may not happen overnight, but it will never happen if you don't get started.
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