Where There's a Will...
Psycho-Cybernetics, Big Kahunas, and then some

I bought a bookshelf the other day with all intentions of organizing the books around my house which were then stacked in piles and shoved in various boxes everywhere here. Seems like I’ve accumulated a lot of books over the years… everything from the complete history of the NFR to lengthy novels to something called “First Principles of Monetary Theory”. Not sure how I ended up with that one. I hardly ever throw any out, as I like to read, and often think that had I been born 100 years ago, I would have been the cowboy on the cattle drive who packed along his books and read to the other guys around the campfire. You’ve seen that guy in old cowboy movies I’m sure. The weird one.

Like most guys who grew up rodeoing, in my younger days I read “Psycho-Cybernetics” by Dr. Maxwell Maltz because it was thought by some of the gurus of Bull Riding to be the WAY to athletic success with it’s simple straightforward message: Go forth with a POSITIVE ATTITUDE and the world is your oyster. Set goals for yourself and believe you can attain them. Of course there’s a lot more to it than just that, but that’s the message that most cowboys come away with. As much as any one thing has revolutionized the sport of Bull Riding, that book and some others like it have. Nowadays, just about every young bull rider you meet has that aura about them. Like they ate that book and keep burping it up.

Over the years a lot of guys who are now the legends of Bull Riding have attributed some of their success to having a positive attitude, and they’re absolutely right. There’s no way they could have achieved without believing in themselves and their abilities. On the other hand I’m sure you see a lot of guys who walk around on a positive attitude cloud all the time, but don’t quite seem to achieve what (I’m guessing) they hope for. I’ve been amazed at how some guys can seem not to ever harbor a doubt that they were going to win… I’ve harbored plenty of doubt in my time. Later you see the same guys going home broke and making plans for the next run or the next season. What makes some positive thinking guys win and others not? There’s a little something else there that puts those guys over the top, though it’s hard to put a finger on and easy to overlook. Our heroes know something most guys don’t and it’s probably not so much part of what they think, as part of who they are.

After I assembled the 97 pieces of my bookshelf with nothing but a rusty phillips head screwdriver and a 42 pound instruction manual, I set about rounding up all the books I could scare from their hiding places. In doing so I found a book that I’ve had for a long time called “The Closing of the American Mind” by Allan Bloom. I think it used to belong to an old high school buddy who went on to earn a degree in English and was heavily into philosophy during his college years. Don’t think I’ve read the book cover to cover; it’s full of philosophical arguments about society, democracy and other heady issues. Puts me to sleep. I flipped through it and found a page marked with a pen; I must have done it years ago… The passage that caught my eye read: “Decisions, not deliberations, are the movers of deeds. One cannot know or plan the future. One must will it.”

In that many words is the answer to why some guys go farther than the rest. They will it. Positive attitude is a pretty rampant around our sport, but it is a way of thinking – a deliberation. Think about what that said – “Decisions….. are the movers of deeds.” Not deliberations. Comes a time when you have to put yourself to the test and have the will to get it done. Don Gay and Tuff Hedeman weren't born with a huge advantage over everybody else they competed with… But when it came time to run their hand in the rope… when the thinking about it was over and it was time to execute, they willed it. Knew what they wanted to achieve and decided to achieve it. They decided to win and the strength of their will carried them by giving them no other choice but to get it done.

I remember hearing Tuff say one time on TV that it (a short go) was time to “stand and deliver”. Pretty much what the book said. “One cannot know or plan…. One must will it.” You can’t just think it will go your way, you have to nod your head and make it happen. Follow through. It’s the essence of Bull Riding. We get caught up in our deliberations… training ourselves to have a positive outlook; talking ourselves into believing we will win; mapping out our entering strategies; thinking about our mechanics; dissecting what we did wrong on the last one; working out at the gym, etc... all of which has to be done.

And after that, I bet it wouldn’t hurt your chances if you were to ride down to the practice pen, pick out the biggest, baddest one there, throw a rope on him, run your hand in there and have a battle of wills with him for about 10 seconds. 8 because that’s what counts and 2 more because you want to make sure he gets the message.

Good luck this year guys, and get the money.

Slade Long

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