State Championship Prep & The Power Within

Well, I in the last two weeks, I’ve fished the ATX Big Bass Open tournament and our monthly ATX Bassmasters club tournament.  The Big Bass tournament was ok, but it was a little disappointing.  I was helping to plan & run that tournament in an effort to help make some money for both me and the other guys from the club that will be competing in the state championship tournament shortly.  Mostly, I was hoping we’d get a big turnout so we could make some money for the state championship guys, and not so worried about performing well in the tournament myself.  I mean, I still competed and prepared for it like any other tournament, but like I said, I was mostly focussed on getting us a good turnout.  It kind of bombed.  We only had 12 teams show up.  Basically, we broke even on our expenses for the tournament and what we pulled in from participation.  No extra gas money for us for the state championship.  Bummer!  And I didn’t do that well in the tournament.  I caught a lot of fish, and several 3lbers, but never got anything that helped in a Big Bass tournament.  Double Bummer.

The monthly club tournament just added insult to injury.  I tried my best to put the Big Bass tournament behind me and just focus on doing well in our club tournament.  Both tournaments were held on Lake Austin, and since I had been fishing there in preparation for the big bass tournament as well as in the big bass tournament, I didn’t feel like I needed to pre-fish for the club tournament much.  I went out and did a little filming for a video I was working on, but I wouldn’t necessarily call it pre-fishing.  I felt pretty confident that I’d have no problems performing well in the club tournament.  WRONG.  It was a tournament I really want to forget.  I was on some really good fish before hand, but they completely shut off in the tournament.  That’s all I’m going to say.  It wasn’t even a tournament where one or two missed fish cost me.  I weighed in two fish and lost a third keeper and that was it.  That third keeper wouldn’t have done me much good.

Anyways, once it was all said and done, I was exhausted from the last couple of weeks and getting a little emotionally drained as well.  Not the type of momentum I want to be carrying into next week’s state championship tournament.  This month, Susie and I have been praying a lot for the strength and means to get through this month as we’ve both got a lot going on.  So far, it’s been pretty tough going, and I haven’t felt much extra strength.  After finishing the club tournament yesterday, I went to bed pretty early by my standards last night (about 10:30 PM) and slept like a rock for the next 12 hours.  I woke up this morning from a dream that I can’t remember, but when I woke up, I very vividly remember the first conscious words in my head being, “When you awake, you will have the power to take your world and climb an exceedingly high mountain.” As I laid there in bed, that phrase kept repeating over and over in my head and it’s stuck with me all day.  To me, those words mean a lot and are symbolic of a number of things.  I feel like that was just the reassurance and push I needed right now from my Heavenly Father.  I’m ready.  I’ve got one week to prepare for this tournament, and I’ve got a lot to get done.  Today I accomplished a lot and still have a lot plenty of energy left in me to keep me going for some time.  Time to start climbing that mountain…