Are you ready for your next hurdle?
She’s ready! I always have to start out before Grace as she quickly catches — and surpasses — me in speed!
Grace is fast. Very fast. One of my challenges in working with her during agility is to keep up with her! My pictures never quite portrayed that sense of motion and so I asked a professional photographer, Annie Card, to join us in a recent class. I love the way Annie captured our movements; the pictures here today (and you’ll see more in the future) are thanks to Annie’s talents. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
When Grace walks into the room and sees the equipment, she wants to GO. No stopping. No hesitation even if she doesn’t do all the things that are considered “correct” in agility judging. She’s takes charge and leads the way, making her way around, through, and over anything close by her. I adore that. It shows her brave, courageous, curious, and fun-loving traits that are very attractive.
And I respect the same thing when I see it in an organization. You can feel the energy in the space when employees are fully engaged in their work. You can catch the enthusiasm when people are ready to move an idea forward. You know their determination and commitment when they are ready to embrace a challenge. Ready to try something different, even if it means they might make a mistake. Ready to jump over any hurdle.
The things that hold us back are usually our own fear of failure. But as has been widely documented throughout history, we can never achieve success if we haven’t yet failed at something. It’s how we learn and grow.
What are you ready to do today?
For a small dog, she has a big jump. You can see her extension as she reaches beyond her own height.
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Gracie could be the new hood ornament for Jaguar cars. Maybe they can dvelop a line of cars that the regular people can afford. Gracie at full extention can be the new emblem. Nice photos.
You are hysterical. I can see her now, blazing the way on the highway!! I wish I was half as witty as you are.
Thanks so much. But Im only witty when it comes to the written word. In real life Im far to quiet most of the time. 🙂
I love Grace’s posture and extension in that jump…She looks a bit like a racing horse jumping over a hurdle….and that expression of pure pleasure on her face is priceless.
I fully agree with the paragraph. As usual, we’re thinking the same. Fear of failure is a big barrier to living life to the full and trying new things. I think I’ve fallen into this trap more than once in my life, so I’m trying to raise my daughter to be more adventurous and try things out without worrying that she might fail. There’s always another time to try again, right?
What I’m ready to do today? Hm, I’m not doing anything new and exciting today, I’m afraid. But I’m ready to approach my new job assignment head on, focus on it and get it done. Then I’m ready to do some gardening this afternoon. Not very adventurous, I know, but we’re also booking out next camping holidays, and that’s when we’ll be ready for adventures. Bring it on! 🙂
From what I know of you, Didi, I can easily imagine you taking a bold approach to your new work assignment. A new adventure doesn’t necessarily have to be jumping off a cliff, for me, it’s more about moving even just a tad outside our comfort zone to push to a new level. Even in gardening, you might try something new and different that you haven’t done before, or were afraid to try. I love the feeling I get after doing something that has always eluded me before. Even if it doesn’t work out, I think to myself: “Well, I tried so now I know.” I very much appreciate you sharing your thoughts — and look forward to hearing about those camping holidays!
You know, you hit it in the head with the gardening. Every year we aim to grow something new that we’ve never grown before and we wouldn’t necessarily buy from the market, either. This year it’s turnips and other roots like that, but we’ve got big plans for next year, and I’m not telling yet. It’ll be on the veg blog at the right time 😛
I saw a programme on TV two nights ago about a man whose ambition was to climb this peak in the Scottish mountains that he’d always been too scared to attempt. When he got to the top, he was almost crying. I can totally understand that!
I meant to say that I fully agree with the “last” paragraph…
That sounds like you! Good luck with the new crops — for me half the fun in buying new food is figuring out how to cook it. Sometimes it works out well, sometimes not. 🙂 Have fun!
Wow, great shots! Go Grace Go!
Bailey is very similar in his attitude towards agility. He is so excited by the equipment that a lot of times he just wants to go go go. It takes a while in the beginning to get him settled down and focused on me so that he actually follows my command and does the equipment in order, and not just whatever he sees first. He will also often run the course backwards to reward himself after he has completed the run.