Morgenthaler – A New Outlook Getting Ready for a New Approach

What do ya know, the 2011 season is right around the corner, and I’ve got a new buzzword for it – balance.

I’ve spent the past few years working hard on the business side of this career for the PAA and for myself and my wife Deb. The upside to the way I’ve been doing things is that I’ve been able to build new partnerships with endemic and non endemic companies. The downside has been my fishing has not been as good as I want it to be.

Deb has been lovingly reminding me of the fact that I need to focus on my fishing for the past couple of years by beating me with one of my fishing poles, and I guess it’s finally sunk in. So, I’ve had to take a hard look this offseason at how I do things and make some adjustments.

The first thing I did was take an absolute break from fishing. I still had to take care of a few business items, but I really got away from it. I even took Deb on a vacation to Cabo San Lucas for a week to get away together. My whole purpose behind the break is to get totally charged up for the upcoming season.

Being on the board of the PAA (www.fishpaa.com) has meant some additional workload that I wouldn’t have had to affect my fishing career, so I’ve worked hard to put people in place to handle the day to day operations so that I can get away when it’s time to fish.

I’ve also looked at how I prepared for upcoming tournaments, and I needed to improve there as well. So, I’m spending more time studying and researching for events, and that focus will help me as well. There’s so much useful information available to us today that I needed to do a better job of digging for it.

I also decided that I need to change my focus on what to expect out of myself come tournament time. I need to stop fishing to cash checks, and focus on making top 10’s if I want to accomplish my goals of making Cup Championships and Angler of the Year type goals.

I’m fishing 13 events this season, and that’s it. In years past I found myself sneaking other tournaments in, and before I knew it, I had fished 20 events, so I was losing focus there too.

Fortunately, my Phoenix 721 arrived in October, so I was able to work with Jasper Engines and Transmissions and Fishouflage to get the wrap done early; so all of that is out of the way. Because it got here early, I was able to spend the time and break in the Mercury 250 Pro XS, so I can focus on the goals ahead.

One thing you can count on from me through this year in this column is that you’ll get whatever’s on my mind, be it good bad or ugly. I’ll tell you when I screwed up, when I was clueless, and I’ll be sure to share the good times and the bad times with you.

Deb and I are looking forward to it, and are planning on having some fun with it this year. So, with tournaments around the corner, I hope you all are having a great Holiday season.

Talk to you soon.

For more on Chad visit him on the web at:www.chadmorgenthaler.com