#45: Bruce Anderson on Pressure, Fear, and Uncertainty

This episode is one in a series I’m doing for my new book Dancing the Tightrope, What Falling Off a Horse Taught Me About Embracing Pressure, Fear and Uncertainty.  

Today’s guest is Bruce Anderson of Natural Humanship. I could argue that this book would not exist were it not for Bruce; I can say for sure what I learned working with him deeply shaped not only the book, but my mindset. Specifically, I’m talking about how I’ve come to view pressure, mistakes, perfection, fear and more. 

Mindset is much more than simply how I view things. It’s about operating with what Bruce calls the Four Missing Pieces. In the work I’ve done with horses in the round pen, Bruce has helped me begin to learn these four missing pieces. And I really do mean BEGIN to learn, because while the pieces may seem simple on the surface, learning to reach for them takes a lifetime to master. 

The good news is this: every situation I used to dread, especially the ones full of pressure, fear and uncertainty, are the very situations that help me gain clarity towards who I really am on the inside, not the conditioned version of me. It’s the moments where things don’t go according to my plan that are the accelerators of my personal growth. That’s the exact opposite of what we have been taught. Modern life teaches us that things not going to plan means that something is wrong with us. 

I can say without a doubt that Bruce’s methods works, because I went from being fully charged with adrenaline at the slightest unexpected move on the back of a horse to being so calm and present, no matter how the horse moves. And that includes a couple of unexpected episodes of bucking. 

This conversation shares some of our journey together, as I was trying to decide whether to ever get on another horse. The biggest bonus in this episode is that Bruce shares the Four Missing Pieces. The biggest bonus in his method is that it has helped me handle pressure, fear and uncertainty in every domain in my life.