Samara Heinrichs Prak

2017 was a rough year for a lot of people. Natural disasters have driven millions of people from their homes. Death has affected many of us, both from disease and terror attacks. Families have been ripped apart. It's a year most would prefer to forget. And yet, one is forced to look forward to the upcoming year.  I recently finished another inspirational book that I felt fitting to reflect on as we bring this year to a close. Malcolm Gladwell's David and Goliath is a book challenging us to consider the advantage of being an underdog, to break free from the seeming shackles of suffering and adversity. "We spend a lot of time thinking about the ways that prestige and resources and belonging to elite institutions make us better off. We don't spend enough time thinking about the ways in which those kinds of material advantages limit our options. Vivek Ranadiv é  stood on the sidelines as the opposing teams' parents and coaches heaped abuse on ...

I can't speak for anyone else, but I know from my life how easy it is to slide into complacency. This can be as trivial as procrastinating vacuuming the house, or that To Do list that just keeps piling up. The proverbial "sweeping it under the rug" syndrome. We're all guilty of this but laziness just feels so good sometimes. Let me put this in horse world context for a minute. This is that liminal time between horse shows where you've finally recovered from the long summer campaign and you need to ramp up for the onslaught of the spring circuit. Merriam - Webster provides an excellent definition of liminal: liminal  :  of, relating to, or being an intermediate state, phase, or condition  :  in-between ,  transitional This is really the difference between losing and winning. It's that liminal time between show seasons where you decide if you want to reach the next level in your training, or if you're just going to coast along until spring hits and...