Jessica Gale: "Detach Yourself from the Outcome"

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British dressage rider Jessica Gale runs on a training and coaching business called De-Complicating Dressage. An international competitor as a junior and young rider between 2012 and 2015, Gale competed on the British team at the 2014 European Young Riders Championships. Her last CDI show was nine years ago at the 2015 CDI Hickstead. Since then she has focused on national sport.

Gale recently shared the following blog on Facebook:

Detach Yourself From the Outcome

If you’ve been around for a while you’ll know I love to talk about how as riders we put so much of our self worth or how good we are as riders on that mark we get at a competition and it’s always frustrated me that so many of us struggle to see past that score and struggle to see the good parts of those bad tests and that perspective. But I’ve always struggled to word how I feel about this subject until I heard someone on a podcast talking about a completely different topic.

They said:

We need to detach ourselves from the outcome and attach ourselves to the process

Detach your self worth from that final score

Detach your decision of whether you are a ‘good rider’ on that final score

Detach your conclusion of whether it was a good day or not on that final score

Instead attach it to the process. The progress you’ve made over the last few months or years, the journey you’re on, how much you enjoy riding your horse, how happy and healthy your horse is and how much they enjoy their work.

Let this be your guide instead and I promise you you’ll enjoy everything from training to competing to life so much better.