There’s nothing quite like the pressure cooker of Team USA’s European Open Team Tryouts. You’ve got just four runs to make it count. To make an impression. To show the coaches, the world, and yourself that you belong there. The results from the first day were incredibly disappointing, because I know what I am capable of, and I walked away knowing I did not uphold my end of the team.

There’s one lesson the universe keeps serving to me, it’s that everything happens in it’s own time. We don’t have control over the course design, the judges, the surface, or 10,000 myriad other factors that are essential to our sport. Hell, we certainly don’t have control over our dogs. And while I can understand that fact logically, sometimes there’s a huge gap between knowing it in my brain and knowing it in my heart.

I know for me, even when I’m at my best mental game, there’s a small moment of let down as a result, and then I have to work really hard to undo that moment. At my worst, that one comment, that one piece of noise could derail my whole day. It could shake my confidence in myself and my team, bringing up that ever present subtext “You’re not good enough” that I’ve tried so hard to dispel.

“I’m not just here for today”. What I mean by that is that I’m on a journey to be the best Agility handler in the world, and I know each day, each moment, each course, each skill, each challenge is a step I need to take on the road to becoming the best. It’s all a learning opportunity, and whether I am “successful” or whether I “fail” in that instance is irrelevant; it’s a lesson I need to learn to get where I’m going.

Let’s stop labelling and limiting our teammates because we are frustrated with a behavior. Let’s drop the emotion, take a step back, and let our rational brain find a better solution. If we can all do this, then we and our teammates will live happily ever after, steadily crushing our goals one day at a time.