Direct the Rider

In my last post I talked about the metaphor of the Rider, the Elephant and the Path as a way of looking at implementing change.

The first step in the process is directing the rider who represents our logical, conscious side. Unless we can learn how to direct the rider, he will have little capacity to control the elephant (the emotional side) which blunders its way along, often completely out of control.

The rider wants to analyse all that is happening and will often become paralysed by all the negatives that are preventing change from occurring.  One of the ways of directing the rider is to find the bright spots and work at developing them. Instead of focussing on the problems, look for the things that are working well, or the people that are achieving most effectively and spend your time building on these bright spots.

Another way of directing the rider is to identify the small steps that need to be taken, scripting them as individual actions that can be identified and are achievable.

I'll talk about the elephant in my next post.