PRESIDENT - ABI DePRIEST VICE PRESIDENT - RILEY JAY OTWELL SECRETARY - PEYTON MATHIS
STUDENT OFFICERS
JOE GLENN KAHLA 612 FM 1747 • Jasper, Texas 75951 409.384.0921 • jgk@mklawyers.com
STATE DIRECTORS / REGION OFFICERS
BILL WHITE 277 Billy White Rd • Singer, LA 70660 337.304.0748 • whiteacres55@yahoo.com
Region V
SECRETARY - SUSAN BALDWIN 722 Southview Circle • Center, Texas 75935 936.590.4330 • regionvsecretary@gmail.com
JUSTIN KLEIN PO Box 2107 • Center, TX 75935 936.590.0229 • sendtojustin@yahoo.com
PRESIDENT- KIRK MATHIS 777 Freeman Cemetery Rd • Lufkin, TX75904
26
PERFORMANCE REPORT
By SIERRA SCHUENEMAN – Performance Reporter
S
ince October I have listened to Matthew McConaughey’s selfnarrated memoir, Greenlights, more than ten times. In fact, the book has become the soundtrack to my road trips. Initially, I listened for the narration, because who doesn’t want to feel like Matthew is speaking directly to them? However, as time progressed, I became infatuated with the content he synthesized from the journals of his life. Each time I listen, I find myself hearing something new for the first time. So, what do rodeo kids and a successful actor have in common? More than you would ever assume. “When we mentally give a person, place, or point in time more credit than ourselves, we create a fictitious ceiling. A restriction over the expectations that we have over our own performance in that moment. We get tense. We focus on the outcome instead of the activity and we miss the doing of the deed. We either think the world depends on the result or it's too good to be true. But it doesn't and it isn't. And it's not our right to believe it does or is.
Don't create imaginary constraints. A leading role, a blue ribbon, a winning score, a great idea, the love of our life, euphoric bliss... Who are we to think we don't deserve these fortunes when they're in our grasp? Who are we to think we haven't earned them? If we stay and process within ourselves, in the joy of the doing, we will never choke at the finish line. Why? Because we're not thinking of the finish line. We're not looking at the clock. We’re not watching ourselves on the Jumbotron performing. We are performing in real time where the approach is the destination.” MM As rodeo contestants, we perceive success to be measured as the tangible trinkets we tote home. We set ambitious goals at the beginning of the season and see the end result either materialize or distance itself at each nod of the head or run down the alley. Focusing our intentions on the end result makes achieving goals that much more difficult. We are no longer willing to take risks. If you find yourself winning the region now, I guarantee your mindset at the next rodeos will be, “what I have done thus far has worked, why change now?” Your success is relative to your own mentality. If you do not see the opportunity for growth, you will not break the “glass ceiling” and reach your fullest potential. Unlike other athletes, we have two opponents: the clock and fellow contestants. One can take the fun out of competition and the other can inspire us to better ourselves; if you cannot distinguish which, reevaluate your circumstance.
“Sometimes you gotta go back to go forward.” MM
