When I grew up if I heardit once, I heard it athousand times, "Be aman of your word." Mydad was big on keeping your word.In describing my dad I've said that his word was better than money. If he told you he would meet you oneyear from today at some mountainlake, he wouldn't call you and you wouldn't have to call him, but on the appointed date if you weren't where you had agreed to be, he would want to know why. He was big on being a man of your word and he expected others to do the same. Dad's word was golden.

I overheard a conversation between two men once. One man's name was Al and my dad had worked for this man in years past. The other man's name was Joe. Joe said to Al, "That ex hired man of yours, Sheldon Woodard was supposed to shoe my horse yesterday and he didn't show up." Al told Joe, "Then you need to call the hospitals and the morgue because if that guy told you he would be there and he didn't show up, then he is either hurt bad, or dead." Sure enough in about half an hour my dad, just driving by drove into visit Al. Joe spoke up and asked my dad why he hadn't shown up on Monday. My dad told him that their appointment was for the next Monday and then showed him his appointment book. Joe said, "Oh yeah, I guess I was mistaken."

I love to read. I read something every day and have for the last forty years. Recently a friend of mine sent me a book that contains four principles that if followed will bring peace to our life. The fi rst section of the book is "Be Impeccable with Your Word". When I saw this fi rst principle I thought, aha, my dad's old principle. And yes, that is part of the word deal. If you tell somebody you are going to do something then you make darn sure you do it. But there is so much more to this word thing. Another part is to speak creatively and not negatively about ourselves, our horses and other people bringpeace in our lives. The author writes that our mind is like fertile ground where seeds are continually being planted. The words that we speak (or seeds) are what is planted in our minds and they grow into opinions, ideas and concepts.

I want peace in my life. I tell my children and grandchildren that peace is more important that money and I believe that with all of my heart. When I read this kind of information about the power of our words I want to use it to bring more peace into my life but I also want it to help me be a better roper and have ahigher winning percentage.

How many times have yougone to a roping and heardpeople speak negatively aboutthemselves or their horses orthe draw? It takes a little work to put a guard on our tongue but Ihave made the decision to do justthat. I want to speak positive words about myself, my horse, the drawand my partners. What I hope this will do is to create positive concepts and pictures in my mind and help to build a positive attitude at crunch time. I heard a man say one time that he wished that just one of his ropes felt as good at the roping as they did at home.What is that? Have the ropes changed? I think not. It's his mindset that has changed.The same thing with our mindset in the practice pen and at a big roping.

In the practice pen I am relaxed. I see where I want to be before the steer is turned.I see the timing of the steers, head turn and the timing of the feet. My delivery is smooth and my movements are fl uid, that's what I want when I compete, the same thing. Now stop and think, just maybe our words even words spoken idly may have an impact and an infl uence on our mental attitude and physical performance in competition. If that's the case then I want to put a guard on my words so that my words work to help me have the right attitude when it counts. An example would be this winter in Arizona. I fi nished one hole out of the money at four different 100 man ropings.

Instead of expressing my disappointment when people would as me about myroping I would say, "I feel like I'm on the edge of a breakthrough to winning big money." I don't know how this is going to turn out because I've got about thirty more days of my winter stay in Arizona.I'm excited to see how my theory on my spoken words works. But after reading this book I am convinced that my dad was right. Being a man of your word is important and the words that we speak aboutourselves, our horses and the draw are also important, very important.