Capable Of Better

Hello,
This has been a tough year for me. A year ago at this time I was on the lead in the world standings, fighting for a title. One year later I’m having the dreaded conversations with the guys at the bottom of the list about how much prize money is it going to take to qualify 15th for the NFR. I’ve had my moments this year, but nothing like I’m capable of. I’m a guy that hates being mediocre. It’s ok to be mediocre if that’s all your capable of, but I’ve proven in the past that I’m capable of much more.

I don’t like excuses. I met an old guy one time and we got to visiting and he told me that he was a retired marine. I don’t remember his rank but he had spent 30 years in the core and he said he loved it. I ask him what the biggest adjustment he had to make when he got out and he answered immediately. He said excuses; I’m not use to people telling me why they can’t do something. He told me that in his world if he told one of his men to jump a horse over a 6 foot brick wall and he come back on hour later, there would be several things that might have happened upon his return The marine might be dead, the horse might be dead or they both might be dead. The brick wall may be torn down or the marine and his mount have accomplished there mission and they have moved on. He said the one thing that you could count on is when you got back to the wall his man wouldn’t be still standing there with his hands on his hips saying, it’s too tall. It’s two windy and I don’t think my horse can make a jump of this height. He said we go over it, through it or tear it down, but we don’t make excuses. I liked what he said so I have tried not to be an excuse maker. I think there a big difference between excuses and reasons because things happen for a reason.
So during this downward spiral I’ve been on, I’ve tried to figure out the reason I wasn’t getting the results I desire and I’ve come up with several during the year. The first was the way I was drawing. I wasn’t drawing as good a steers as everyone else and that’s crazy. Losers say that. One guy doesn’t draw any better than the next guy, 50 percent good ones and 50 percent bad ones, so we can eliminate that. Bad breaks, I worked my way into the semi finals at the Houston Rodeo which is the biggest regular season rodeo of the year and a win there and you virtually guaranteed a spot at the NFR. All I had to do is be under 7 seconds to make the final 4 and rope for $35,000 a man and I hooked my rope on the calf roping pulley in the heeling box, when I left the chute and it jerked my rope out of my hands. That was a bad break but one incident doesn’t make or break you and that was unfortunate but everyone has bad breaks. My horse was going forward when I threw my rope, so I took him to the vet and had his hocks worked on and that fixed that problem. Things got a little better, but not great. The last thing I came up with was I went to have my eyes checked. I couldn’t possibly see and rope this bad, so to the eye doctor I went and I did in deed need glasses but that hasn’t been the fix all either. In the final analyzes it’s come down to one thing, Desire, that burning desire that you have to have to achieve something great.
I read one time that the two worst things that can happen to a person is one, never reaching your goal and the other is reaching it. When I came back and decided to put my schools on hold and start competing full time again I set some goals for myself. 1. I wanted to see if a man 50 years old could qualify for the NFR. 2. I wanted to reach the $1,000,000 dollar mark in prorodeo earnings. I was at $670.000 when I started 31/2 years ago and I felt that with the prize money the way it is at the NFR now days, that was an attainable goal as well. Last, I wanted to have the credentials to be considered for induction into the Prorodeo Hall of Fame. The last one is political and I’m not a very political guy but if I did all I could do in the arena maybe I would reach that last goal.
This comeback turned out way better than I planned. If someone came up to you and said that your going to win the US open, $95,000 at the NFR and the World Championship, and Bob Feist Invitational you would say right, in your dreams. Except it wasn’t a dream, It happened, and it happened to me. It has been awesome, but then comes the thought, now what. Right after the NFR last year I should have chosen a new set of goals and went after them. I have 20 other things that I want to achieve away from the rodeo business but I decided to stay one more year and I didn’t have that burning desire it takes to do great things. I have it now but it might be too late. There’s 3 weeks left in the regular season and I’m doing everything humanly possibly to qualify one more time and get back to the NFR to rope for the title and I still have a chance.
The thing I learned this year is if you don’t have an absolute passion for something then don’t do it. If you don’t love what you’re doing and you just can’t wait for the alarm clock to go off in the morning so you can get out there and get after it, you won’t achieve great things. There are so many wonderful goals in life, a person can set your sights on, but it has to be something you want. Something you want more than anything in the world and it doesn’t matter how big or how small. It’s that spark way down in your soul that turns into a fire and then a raging inferno that drives you on past where most people would quite but that isn’t an option for a person that has that desire. We all have to find out what it is that we really want out of life. Life’s to short so don’t wait another day. Find out what it is that you really want out of life and go after it.
Until next month
Thanks for your time
Walt Woodard