 So tell me why do you think as humans we struggle to train the mind But we're quite happy going physically work out, but we have this resistance to train this but that's the difference between The top 15 and everybody else So yeah, let's just start deep right away So, you know, it's it's really it's really important Because there's there's three things according to Michael Jervais He's a sports psychologist that I follow and I really Can identify with the things that he teaches and he says there's three things that we can train our craft Which is barrel racing cutting, you know roping whatever our craft our body and Our mind and the mind though while we all understand that it's really important. There's Maybe a little bit of Uncertainty and how to train it, you know, you can you can read books That will tell you you need to be able to focus who cares what anybody thinks, you know and things like that But it maybe isn't clear in how you actually train it. So You know, I think that there's there's a lot of well-intentioned people that are trying to learn but there's not there there's less resources where you can actually go to to learn how to train it and so That's one of the things that I love doing is talking to people and deciding, you know, like we know how to train horses And there's very specific steps you can do the process. Yeah the process. Yeah, exactly. And That's just why I really enjoy You know working with people to do that because there is there are very specific things that we can and very specific ways to train it and things that we can do and they build off of each other and It just it really does make a difference because like you said when you get to a top level everybody's really skilled they've trained their body and they've trained their craft and It's how well do you handle? stress and pressure How resilient are you in the face of defeat which for most of us we lose way more than we win And that's for the people that are successful Yeah Well, you do say in your book that physical skill and talent only gets you so far. Yeah, and that's the difference. Yeah With when you start people that understand the mind Stevie, when did you start becoming aware of the power of controlling the mind? Honestly, when I met Tai I mean he was kind in the middle of wanting to learning so much and in the middle of taking some courses and reading books and I was starting a rodeo and running barrels and so I really didn't know much about it Or I didn't know how important it was. I knew about it, but I really looking back now I knew nothing But hearing him talk and it was really cool because when he was stepping into it his passion It was new for me. So I mean we could bounce things off each other He was learning so he could talk all day long to me about this and it was new to me as well And it's a huge part of my mental game today I mean what what are a couple of tools that that ties helped you with that? You've really that have sort of set with you that you use to try and get yourself Block out the competition and just focus on you I guess in your run More so than my run probably I would have to say just Staying in the game staying focused Preparation is one thing prepared or doing everything I can do to be prepared for to win taking care of my horses Keeping them healthy myself Just being ready and prepared and then to Focusing on what I have control over that's been a game changer because you can get outside of it thinking Well, what if or they felt like this or they've done this or it's Reigned or whatever it is. That's all outside of my control So to bring myself back to what do I have control over and that's keeping my horse feeling good focusing on what I need to do To put myself in a position to do good. So Ty, what what are some examples of what's an exercise for that? We could do maybe to to Block that out and just worry. Oh, no, I'll just be just do Yeah Do what um, you know what we can control so yeah, that's a great question and to just build off of what she's saying So when you try to learn so it's it's learning to focus focusing is a mental skill that's trainable We don't just have focus We don't just have the ability to think about that one thing or to fixate on that one thing It has to be developed and has to be trained so focus though What's cool about focus is there's broad focus like focusing on the things that are within your control and influence and then there's narrow focus like You know if your hands need to be in a certain way or you need to look at a certain spot or whatever So there's broad and there's narrow so Either way you try to develop it the same way and it starts You kind of have to go a little bit before that and before you can really develop focus You actually have to train awareness and when I say awareness I mean Awareness that right here right now in this moment as we sit here or on the back of the horse or wherever in that moment We have the opportunity to choose a deliberate response Whatever it is that we want to do whether it's an emotional response It's what we want to focus on whatever it is a choice But we spend so much of our time like in just autopilot. We're just mindlessly Being directed by what's going on and just reacting so we need to have the awareness that right here right now I actually get to choose what I'm going to focus on it's within my power to do it and So then you start with that then from there There's certain things so like a Stevie's talking about from a broad perspective. Let's say just focusing on what's within our control Really that's one thing. It's us in our response. That is really the only thing that we can control now We have things that we have influence over those are horses those are other people those are whatever so we can influence them Do we ever control them? No, they have a mind anything that has a mind of its own You will never have full control over so we have to understand that But like what Stevie's saying is we need to be able to be prepared and and really identify what we control and what we influence And so what we do With that is we have to just continuously remind ourselves We have to it's like self-talk. That's another mental skill And we always have to be aware of what's happening and be able to remind ourselves through self-talk of What's within my control and every time you recognize that you're off base and you bring it back That's when the skills getting sharpened up every single time for sure. So that's how that works Can I touch on that? So awareness going back to awareness and I feel like I get asked all the time Well, I black out. What do you do? I black out in the alley. I black out in my run. I don't Think through it. So I always get asked, well, how did you train yourself to do that? So going this is I feel this is a great topic to share because When I first started training and perfecting that in my mind I had to talk myself through it over my attention span is very short I get squirreled all the time big surprise I know so in the beginning which I still do have to do this But in the very beginning it was going back to it over and over and over again telling myself Going down the alley telling myself going to the first barrel telling myself Turn even turning a barrel like just talking myself through and I guess that's more self-talk But going back to awareness you have to have awareness of where you're focused and what you're thinking about and when And I feel like in the beginning it was so It almost got me to the point where I was getting too intense about it So I feel like you're gonna know when you're at that point to move from that and Habit and muscle memory starts taking over so you don't have to talk yourself through it quite so much and so intense But I feel like going back to awareness is a good place to start with that being aware if you're blacking out in the alley Okay, you remember the first bro, but you don't remember anything after I'm saying barrel racing because that's You know where you're losing that focus Bringing awareness to it in your run But what a lot of people girls don't think about is when you're practicing when you're exhibitioning when you're Sitting at home go through it mentally go through it over and over and over again It's not just when you're making a run. They want to just practice it when they make a run So that's that was that's a good point. So do you? Write down probably maybe in bullet points so you can get clarity you might say, okay This is that these are the five points. I want to bring my mind Yes, I might say okay first barrel or whatever or first cow raining spin So you do that and then do you go through that in your head in the alley? Yes, and for me writing so many different horses I have to keep track and I could do a little better writing stuff down He's on me all the time write stuff down, but I have gotten better to write at least certain words down for each horse that's going to help me whether it's Drive by or Relax or whatever those words are for you in your run Figure that out for you because everybody's different what works for me maybe a different word or words for you so that helps You know having a specific game plan and routine for each horse and each run well when I go really fast this happens Okay, when you go slow breaking it down to when you go slow versus fast So holding it all together mentally and words for what you need for each horse for each run You know it gets a little confusing and overwhelming, but writing it down keeping it simple Sounds silly, but it is very important. It's not silly at all. Very important. I remember reading a book by Maxwell Molz and Psycho psychonetics and and what really helped me with one's situation was and is awareness the same is becoming present Do you think always when is awareness more awareness of where's your mind? Is that what yesterday? You're saying Stevie. What am I thinking? Yeah awareness staying present to me is I Think it's related But it feels the same. Yeah, it does it can it can be the same But I don't think it is always the same because when I say awareness the other thing I can Is it's not just about aware of where I am right here right now It can also be aware of this is my typical response in a situation like This is typically what I think about or whatever so it It's related, but I don't feel it's the same but but being present is also another mental skill It is like for me know when I was doing my little bit of rodeoing. I retired unhurt and unhurt off But but when I did Becoming what I got from from his book was how to become present was to feel the bucking shoots How cold the steel was and then feel is the horse hot Is he soft feel the leather as you're putting the halter on and and that that helped me so much because it made me Become present in that situation absolutely and breathing obviously and it actually changed me nearly overnight Well, it just it made me just focus. I forgot about the crowd or whoever it just make I'm gonna feel Maybe with the cutting feel your saddle feel your horse feel your reins just become present But then yeah, as you say your mind wants to dart off and yeah, and then go away So is that because Ty the mind is so it loves negativity. I mean the mind just loves to thrive or Negative negativity doesn't so it just wants to take you to the negative thoughts. So yeah I mean that can be you know, it's by nature a lot of of us are more pessimistic than optimistic for sure however, I feel that The mind left untrained is Whether it's positive, but you know thinking about positive or negative things. It's just it's untrained It's like I've heard people say it's like a drunk monkey, you know that that just does whatever Until we try to put some boundaries around it So it is it's not like we ever have everything buttoned up and zipped up all the time What we're trying to do is train it to have certain times where we say monkey sit in this chair And be quiet for the next 10 minutes and then you can get up and do whatever Yeah, you know, so we can't expect it to be perfect all the time, but So that's just all of us like we we're not born. Oh, no, I still deal with a lot of that. I mean I have to gather my focus and and what you were talking about feeling and seeing and it slows you down to be present and to be aware because we get so scattered with so many thoughts and Feel like that just slows it down to be able to focus really on what you need to focus on Well, can I add to it because I don't want to move on from that because it's really cool that you said that because that is okay So in that context that you describe being in the present that is absolute awareness and so that's really cool because in The present moment is where the high performance happens right here doesn't happen in the future and absolutely doesn't happen in the past You know, it's right here right now So when you are paying attention to those things it is absolutely bringing you right here right now the other cool thing about it is is Now it's directing your focus on some of these other things and what you're not thinking about now is what's at stake What someone's going to think about you how rank this horse is, you know How bad these cattle are you're at the end of your set or whatever and you know You think that you might potentially just not even have a chance or or it's the fertility and you know There's a lot of money on the line. There's a lot of expectations. So that awareness of feeling the saddle feeling the stirrups smelling hearing whatever it is It keeps you from thinking about that so it's almost like a good distraction and yeah key