No tags yet.
Hi all!
Many mornings, I spend thinking and reflecting as I drink coffee. Today, has been no different since my son is with his mom and getting ready for some school time. One thing that people close to me know I do is I write letters to Henry. These letters will be my life lessons and personal thoughts on behavior with animals and how those things can relate to us. I’m not a scientist. These are only my opinion. I’ve done no study accept the study on myself and the dogs that I’ve lived with. This blog will be about enrichment and what it means to us and your furry friend. In this case I will be talking about dogs and maybe a bit about cats although not an expert at all with cats.
One thing that has surprised me over the last few weeks is how unmotivated or maybe a bit depressed one can get even if they’re living their happiness or passion. I was interested in diving into my own mind since the motivation for this past week was tough. It was hard to go to training sessions and some days very hard to get out of bed. With all this stuff to get done around me, I still got it done but it was for sure like going against the grain. Dog training, especially the basics can become redundant and boring if you think about it. You’re teaching the same thing day in and day out depending on the week you’re on. This made me think of enrichment for people. For dogs it’s simple, simply let the dog know what it needs to do and walk him/her give structure to their exercise let them feel like they worked for their food. Structure is to bring us closer to the dogs, so they get the satisfaction of working as team and then getting fed is the culmination of working together. Solidifies the bond in a way.
For people I believe this could be a bit trickier. It is for me I believe. For me it’s about not standing still for too long. We are not physical like the dog or cats we live with. Their physical abilities completely out weigh us. Therefore, they need physical stimulation to help fill fulfilled. Ours is a bit deeper. We need the same things only us humans or better yet myself as whom I’m talking about in this blog needs more mental exercises than he does physical. These exercises involve physical things like handling something not always physical in the sense of running 25 miles. I mean physical in the sense of putting something together. I will take this past week. My chain on my fan broke. I know nothing about electricity. I know that this is not going to be fun. I take the fan apart, get shocked over and over. I can’t figure out how to completely shut the power off. So, I figure that out then I understand I need a new pull chain that I have to install which I know nothing about electricity. I decided it would be easier to have my brother come over and he couldn’t figure it out. Solution almost was to call out an electrician to fix the problem. Truth is as I was working on this little problem my entire mind was engaged in something. Time really didn’t matter. I was in a state of stress but was working through it because I wanted my fan to be put back together and working. Needless to say, I did it. I figured it out. It was an amazing rush I felt when completed the exercise. I didn’t work as a team, or did I? My body and mind were all engaged on trying to achieve the goal. After I had completed this challenge I felt a sense of fulfillment confidence. I understand that my body tries to make me run from conflict, but I also believe the reason why my mind gets confused is that it’s from my own experience. Our mind wants us safe so it makes sure to keep us from conflict, but that conflict was for animals trying to kill me like bears lions, tigers oh my and not for making a phone call or having a tough conversation with someone. I understand that my mind is a bit confused and is only going off the experiences it has. In a way I’m “soft” in the survival game. My mind Understands that it’s constant learning that helps me grow and feel enriched. I feel like I keep going after things that may interest me. Well it’s easy to be motivated then. What happens when you go after things that are super challenging that don’t interest me? I believe that’s where our key point of enrichment comes in.
We like our dogs need to be enriched and we think going to work where we understand our work completely does this for us. Truth is we cannot ever stop consuming. It’s who we are as people. But it’s the “what” that we are consuming that is interesting. I think our bodies crave for nutrition and our mind craves for challenges. I know for me I allow myself to be numbed by certain distractions in my life to avoid certain challenges or maybe accept certain things the way they are because I don’t want to be challenged or open that can of worms. Truth is that I’m scared that I may not be enough. Truth is we are all enough. Not saying that you’ll be the best, but you can learn things. It’s part of you. Your enrichment. Enrichment for us is about understanding and learning first. I believe our physical is second.
I believe finding your passion is never enough. It’s about learning how to keep learning and challenging yourself through different obstacles that will come up or you seek out. We spend so much time working on jobs that don’t challenge us. If we in our jobs were able to change jobs ever 6-12 months in that organization I believe we’d be more innovative and way more driven. I know I seek out new challenges in my business. Try different things. I’m a one man show but I change things up behind the scenes to try and keep myself engaged. I wonder what would happen if companies started to allow this to happen. Maybe production and inovation will go up? Maybe not? Just have to let it happen in a company and find out.
Until next time!