Enjoy the Journey...3/365

Blog 3/365

Golf is difficult...but so rewarding. Golf is not an easy sport to play. The odds are stacked against us from the get go. Small ball, small targets, water hazards, bunkers, very small margins of error in a complex action that uses the whole body. The subtleties of the game are overwhelming, ground conditions, wind, temperature, pin placements, constantly changing setups and what side of bed you get out of on occasion. Time, cost and location all need to be factored in. But all hope is not lost...these difficulties above can be worked on one by one, and the rewards for sticking with it, enduring the struggle, and turning problems into opportunities for growth have massive rewards. As I ask my students, can you set aside the outcome of what you are trying to do and focus instead on the process? A real life example-a student of mine, we’ll call him Barry, came to me and said ‘Michael, I’m really struggling with not making enough birdies on the course’. Now Barry is a good player, always has been. Over a coffee we had a chat, and through some gentle questioning we figured out that he was so fixated on scoring birdies on certain holes that he was missing out on the process itself of scoring. We revamped how he approached his on course strategy, and he went out with a very simple goal on the holes he felt that he should birdie, to hit a draw off the tee, and to hit a draw at the right side of the green. He came back a few days later, and told me that at first it had been very difficult, but after a few holes he focused on the shots, started hitting the middle of the greens, and put 4 birdies on his card. We broke down an outcome driven goal into small measurable steps, which he could achieve, and the results just started to happen. So next time you’re worrying about your score, concentrate instead on the shape of your shot. Try applying this with different areas of your game, and you may surprise yourself.

Michael