"Add an Engaging Title"

So, I sat for about 5 minutes staring at those four words. "Add an Engaging Title." I don't know whats engaging. And any attempt to be clever or funny would probably be seen for what it is - a poor, desperate attempt. Heck, even that was an attempt at being clever. But, I digress.

Before you read on, I will go ahead and introduce myself, and what I will be writing about. That's why you're here, right? To see what it's all about?

My name is Melinda Anderson. I am native to Illinois but have had the privilege to experience life in many different locations. Currently, I am living my first winter in Oregon. More on that later, I am sure. I am here to reflect on the life I have gotten to live. I want to show you how I am finding my path in this world, and maybe, possibly, inspire others to reach out and find their own path. I am currently working in the horse industry, and it is my dream to maintain a spot in this industry throughout my life. I have been lucky enough to have had many opportunities to learn, and grow, as a rider and an equestrian including, in no specific order, positions doing things such as riding jumpers, endurance racing, reining horses, paso finos, problem horse, and I even was lucky enough to have the opportunity to start my own riding school. I hope to be able to have some guest posts from parents of my former students in the future.

So, I have had a really hard time deciding where to begin. Logic would say, begin at the start. But, the question is, the start of what? My horse experience? My professional career?

The way I will bring you through my journey is in whatever order it comes to my mind. Oftentimes I find myself reflecting on different things, and I'd like to just have a place to voice those. Maybe somedays I might have a specific event to talk about, and maybe sometimes it will just be a generalized statement.

So, today, I will start with my dream.

It's easy to dream, right? The hard part, though, is putting in all of the hours that lead up to accomplishing a dream. Something I've learned is that there's no such thing as a dream that's too big. It's easy for people to tell you what you can't do, but the important part is for you to know, true to yourself, what you CAN do. For me, it's been a long time coming in getting to be true to myself. I sold myself short. I didn't believe in the big picture, and my dreams reflected it. I had the dream to compete in an international competition, and 6 months later I found myself in Colombia, astride a Trocha Pura horse. I had a dream to show at nationals, 6 months later there I was. However, as time has gone on and I've gotten the chance to experience more and more, I know now exactly what my dream is.

Now, it would be great of me to share that dream with you, right? But that's not why I'm sharing this with you. Why I'm sharing this is because I want to encourage you to really, really think about what your dream is.

And, after you realize what that dream is, you need to think about whether this dream is what you want in the grand picture, or just something short term. Initially my dream was "to win a national championship." Check. And, well, in my chosen breed alone, over 100 of those are crowned each year. so, I had to think bigger. So, then I had to think about what that national championship meant. It meant that at that day, at that time, I had the best presentation. Was that worth all of my energy leading up to the event? Maybe so, but there's gotta be something more than that.

So, what I'm trying to say is, when you're thinking about that dream of yours, think about what that dream means in the grand picture. Is it something you want for your life? Or just for the minute? Perhaps, you're selling yourself short, and setting your goals too low.

And, what is important, also, is to find out how to make that dream a reality. It's easy enough to dream, but to work for it every day, is not. So, it's so important to figure out how to accomplish that dream, moving forward from today, and to take that step in achieving it. And, to not let anything stop you, even if it doesn't exactly happen how you planned. Because, trust me, if someone told me a year ago what has happened in the last 6 months of my life, I would think they were crazy. But, I wouldn't change a thing, because I am here, chasing the dream that I have. Every morning, I search "motivation" whether it be on youtube, spotify, or elsewhere. And I listen to what comes up. Every day, when I have idle ears, I spend some time listening to podcasts from those who have accomplished a dream of theirs. It's helped me tremendously to really imagine the big picture, rather than the short term goals.

I encourage anyone who wakes up knowing they aren't done dreaming to try this. It only has to take up 5 minutes of your day.

To start, I'll leave you a great video, centered around my industry of choice, that might just leave you dreaming. Please, let me know what you think <3