Um. OK. We seem to have a poor attitude to competing.
It does not matter what size you are or what your total is. Let's face it, winners get a medal painted gold, silver or bronze which gets tossed into a drawer after and never seen or used again. Unless you put it around your gf's neck and watch it bounce away.
You don't get paid. You don't get a sponsorship deal. You don't become a TV presenter. You don't become rich and famous. You don't "break the internet". At best you get a few "well done"s by the boys at the gym the next day you train and that's about it.
Lets face it. For the average person, the only non Australian olympians we can remember can be counted on one hand. Especially if you discount the infamous ones that got pinged for using drugs.
Competing is about beating yourself, pushing yourself beyond your limits and putting yourself on a platform where your efforts will be judged strictly according to very precise criteria. Unless you are in one of "those" feds. You know. There is a huge difference between hitting a PR in the gym and getting the same at a comp.
You can turn up at a comp, get one good attempt in on each lift and win gold, really just by turning up, because you happen to be the only person in your age and weight category that turned up. Or everyone that turned up is a first timer. It happens.
So you have to examine why you compete. It should be to better yourself, to beat your last PR or total, to improve and better yourself. I have set national records and been disappointed because I knew I could do better. I have done PR's and they have been lost in the crowd. In the end, its about self satisfaction. Beating yourself.
So don't be one of those guys who will compete "next year" or "when I get a decent total". Join up, look at the calendar and enter a comp 3 months down the track. Thats all you gotta do. Oh, and go beat the crap out of yourself at the gym to make it all happen.