It’s true.  Two summers ago I literally did not follow this rule; the horse went left and I went right…and down.  I did a complete flip (well, almost) and landed on the rock hard ground as dust billowed up around me.  My insides gelled together while I checked for feeling in my legs.  This rule is not really about horses, but rather the fact that our world is constantly changing; we need to make sure we are changing with it.

The Seed

Change is constant.  Do you remember when you first encountered a new piece of technology for the first time?  A few years younger than I, my graduate school project partner insisted that the way to eject a disk from a Macintosh computer was to drag the disk to the trash.  Really.  Does that make sense?  No.  I know it doesn’t.  I was so very far out of my comfort zone on that day.  I eventually realized that this thing called the Internet might be sticking around for a little while, and I probably better get it figured out.

Germination

Change is constant.  My example of the change in technology over the years is just one tiny little blip on the world radar.  It’s true that just a few years after I watched the virtual disk drop into the virtual trash can and then watched the actual disk pop out of the computer, I was teaching others to create web pages.  But then the world as I know it changed again.  I moved wwaaaayyyy out into the country.  I could barely get an Internet connection.  WiFi?  Not out here!

Continue reading 2011 Ranch Hand Guide: #4. Ride The Horse in The Direction It’s Goin’ →