There have been countless moments in life where it feels as if I have just been through a 7.9-second thrashing of a Brahma bull ride: long enough to feel the thrill & pain of every jolt, yet failing at the end with a ‘no-score.’ That last 0.1 seconds an eternity away.
While I have never been on a bull (and never, ever plan too…), the idea of surviving those 8-seconds necessary to score an official ride works well as an analogy in business and life.
“8.0 seconds of fury” is not a way many would like to spend life, but eventually, we will face such a ride. As noted in an earlier post, “Let’er Buck,” there are courageous souls who tackle this role with wild abandon on the rodeo circuit, and how they handle those 8 seconds can teach us mortal folks about dealing with life.
It takes an artistic skill not only to survive for those 8-seconds, but to create a thing of beauty from such a violent ride. To score the highest possible with the cards we are dealt.
To score the highest, the cowboy must make the ride look effortless. So amid the fury of the ride, arrives the concept of becoming one with the animal…to be one with nature, to allow a certain peace and quiet confidence to envelope the scene.
Synchronicity, where everything around you works together. A moment where it feels like you can achieve anything. Your actions appear and feel effortless, as if you are doing nothing, yet your focus and results prove otherwise.
It is taking the bull by the horns, becoming so focused and primed that you flow with the jolts and gyrations that may come your way.
Whether riding a Brahma bull, bronc, or poring over spreadsheets and business deals, when you are in a zone, life becomes effortless. Answers arrive before questions are asked, and work is completed as if it were play. These are the moments to live for, when nothing seems to go wrong.
Years ago, while at the Pendleton Round-Up, I was talking with a group of bareback bronc riders who were describing how they felt during competition. Each one agreed that ‘there are days you feel as if you are one with the animal, and it is a beautiful, effortless ride…” and behind that success are years of hard work, experience, and humility.
The one thought I took away from that great conversation in the arena was advice I still try to follow today: “The minute you start becoming cocky and disrespecting either the animals or those around you, it is lost…the focus is gone, and you are flying through the air with a hard, hard ground below…”
Humility is about understanding that you can always learn something, often from people and places you least expect. From what I have experienced and seen from cowboys over the years, there is a consistent trait of confidence and a brazen sense of fearlessness with the way they live…yet even with this confidence, they are respectful and humble.
Respectful of those that came before them, and towards those who work the land, making the USA and the West the way it is today: a slice of heaven on Earth.
Life throws a lot our way, and as the immortal cowboys teach us every rodeo season with their actions, tough days are inevitable, and there will be strings of rides that result in eating dirt & grass.
Such times make us who we are, as we find the focus and passion that allows us to dust ourselves off and prepare for that next ride, for it may be the next ride, that perfect ride, to put us back on top again.
When the time comes where we have to face the ‘agony & ecstasy’ of that 8-second ride in life, keep focus on what lies ahead and when problems arise: take the bull by the horns…
Related articles
- African-American Bull Riding Trailblazers (blackmaleequestrians.wordpress.com)
- The Pendleton Round-Up
- Let’er Buck! (dalocollis.com)
Global Sojourns: Photography & Philosophy 
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