I’ve always had an issue with over committing myself.
I’m not just going to write regularly, I tell myself. I’m going to have a finished piece every single Friday and I’m going to make a newsletter and I’m going to ask people to subscribe to it.
I’m not just going to be more consistent with my podcasts. I’m going to make sure Telltail Dog Training comes out every single week, and I’ll batch the content and use it as part of marketing for my magazine, which will also become quarterly, and I’ll get advertisers.
I’m not just going to get more consistent with training my dogs. We’re going to do three training trips a week, multiple training sessions a day, three enrichment activities a day, and I want to get each of them in classes (but finding classes that work for their individual needs is a whole other challenge).
There’s the personal commitments, the business commitments, the feeling like I’m failing short all of the time, the fear that I’m always going to feel like that. The giving up before I even start because I don’t know if I have enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do.
And then there’s the dreaded thought that If I can’t do everything that I tell myself I need to do, then also what does that say about me as a person and my values?
I struggle the most over the holidays, because that’s the time that we indulge as we prepare for the new year, the new resolutions. We’ll change our diets, get back into the gym, start a new hobby with the new year. But often, it’s too much all at once, and then by February, the gyms are empty again and what’s that shift away from fast food matter, if we just keep failing?
When meeting with new clients, I make a lot of suggestions, and I’ve realized how overwhelming it can be to folks. So I started offering a section that covers the top three places to start. Mentioning that this is information, things to try out. Maybe try just 30 seconds of training a couple of times a week instead of five minutes every single day. Instead of adding multiple enrichment activities daily, maybe just turn two mealtimes into an enrichment, like throwing kibble in a puzzle or hiding some in a towel or even scattering a handful in the backyard.
For me, it was figuring out my schedule so I could get my high-drive Malinois three training walks a day. She does a lot better when she gets all three, and then I don’t have to feel as bad if she doesn’t get a training session or we haven’t found time to go somewhere she can run (she also runs up and down the stairs, leaping over the couch or onto the bed, about 50 times a day). She gets fed three times a day as well, with a special chew, like a gullet stick or a trachea. That helps her avoid chewing up my electronics or my vacuum chord.
It was enrolling Lexi into round two of agility classes so she can continue to pursue her mountain goat needs.
And it was making sure Jeeves gets his one-on-one walk with me every day, because he got two walks a day for eight years before I brought other dogs into our home, and he’s his happiest when he gets to trot down the street with me, looking for people to greet.
This is the month we all make big plans and maybe we do them for a week or two, and maybe we keep going, or maybe we fail. It’s okay to take small steps, both personally and with your dog. Try just one new thing at a time, commit to once or twice a week, and you just find that doing that one thing will mean forward progress, even if it isn’t the flashy progress we’re all conditioned to commit to and pursue.
