Do you want to leverage your best self and become the person you always wanted to be? Not only that, but become the person that your dog needs you to be?
I want that for you too! I believe that by working on yourself, you can simultaneously build your partnership with your dog.
To help you achieve that level of brilliant partnership that I teach inside the Brilliant Partners Academy, I’m going to share a series of fun exercises to help you improve your partnership with your dog.
These exercises are designed to help you get in touch with what your best self is, what those qualities are, and what your dog needs from you. Many members of the Brilliant Partners Academy have completed these exercises and seen incredible results. They became the best version of themselves, their perspective changed, and their dogs have blossomed too.
It’s not enough to read through these exercises and never do anything with them! You have to actually implement them! So, are you ready to improve your partnership with your dog? Let’s get into the exercises!
1. Write down three ‘dog people’ that you admire and respect
The first step is to grab a notebook or make a note in your smartphone and write down three dog people that you admire and respect.
Think about people who have a partnership with their dogs that you admire. Perhaps you see them as a role model, which is fantastic. Write their names down.
If you can’t think of anyone in your immediate circle, expand to other dog parents beyond that. Maybe it’s someone you’ve never met or someone you’ve only ever conversed with virtually. Choose people that you admire because of their relationship with their dog (or dogs).
2. Write down three qualities that you admire about each of your three ‘dog people role models’
The next step is to think about three qualities that you admire about each of the dog people you’ve written down. Think about why you admire them.
Do you admire how they are with their dogs? Do you admire their patience? Do you admire their reliance or determination?
Think about three qualities that you admire about each of them and write those down. If you admire the same qualities for more than one person, that’s fine, just write them down again if you have to.
3. Write down three qualities you imagine your dog values in a human partner
You will need your imagination for this one! I want you to step into your dog’s paws and imagine what qualities and/or traits your dog values the most in a human partner.
What type of qualities does your dog want you to have?
Perhaps your dog values the way you communicate with them? Or, maybe they love your playful nature or your affection?
Once you have some qualities in mind, write three down. They don’t have to be personal qualities. If you prefer, you can think of it as in what type of qualities your dog would like any human to have.
4. Think about how you can express the qualities your dog admires in humans
This step requires some more creative thinking and imagination. So, now I want you to imagine how you can express the qualities your dog admires most in you or other humans.
How can you express those qualities in everyday life with your dog? Listening is a quality that your dog admires so where might that listening quality come into play in your everyday life?
Think about it and try your best to implement all those qualities in everyday life with your dog.
Why you resonate with these qualities
Now that you have a pretty long list of qualities by now, I’m going to tell you something that you might need to sit down to hear…
The reason that you resonate with the qualities you noticed in others and the qualities you believe your dog would appreciate in you is because you already have those qualities.
Now, take a look at that list again. Consider each of the qualities you’ve written down and see if you can recognize any (or all) of them in yourself. If you can’t at first, you just need to look closer and don’t be so hard on yourself!
Bring these qualities into your life with your dog
When you realize that all of the qualities you and your dog admire in others, you can develop a new mindset and shift your thinking process. Once you know what qualities you want to emulate more openly to the world, you’ll find it much easier to do so. And, the more you learn to show these qualities in your everyday life, the closer you’ll get to becoming your best self and a better partner for your dog.
With these qualities, you can create a process of affirmation that will remind you how you choose to live with your dog. By making a conscious effort to expand on the qualities that you and your dog values, you’ll start to develop fundamental habits that mimic those qualities. With practice, you can learn to tap into these qualities whenever you’re making decisions, processing new information, and interacting with your dog.
Use these qualities to create affirmations
The final step (before implementing these qualities into your life more) is to create a statement of affirmation.
You can do this by writing down the first affirmation, which is “I am becoming…” The second piece is how you want to think, feel, and act. And, the last affirmation is to repeat the first one.
Here’s an example of what this might look like:
1. I am becoming a confident, peaceful, and loving person.
2. I remain calm, relaxed, and patient in challenging situations and I feel gratitude for my experiences.
3. I am becoming a confident, peaceful, and loving person.
Doing this can help you to leverage your best self. Remember, you already have each of the qualities you wrote down – that’s why you resonated with them so strongly. You just need to take the time and start leveraging those qualities more in your everyday life with your dog.
Read your affirmation passage every day or three times a day if you want to! I suggest reading them in the morning so you can start your day by reminding yourself of the qualities you want to emulate as the day progresses.
I hope you have a lot of fun with this! I also hope that you can take a step (or leaps) towards your goal of creating a deep and meaningful partnership with your dog.
If you’d like to work with me and learn how to create a partnership lifestyle for you and your dog, you can request an invitation to join us in the Brilliant Partners Academy when the doors open for the next enrolment!
You can listen to everything I talked about in this blog post over on my podcast – Enlightened By Dogs. It’s episode 116, which you can listen to here.
To watch a short trailer of the episode, hit play below:
One Response
Hi Kathy thank you for sharing your insight about bring dog mom’s role model very inspiring and looking forward to put it into practice with my fur babies. I have been following your podcast for a while now. Keep up the great work you have done for all dog moms around the world ?❤️?