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The secret of the little change that brings big results.
I can put my finger on the day my golf game started to move forward with surprising precision.
You might think it was when I started to hit my driver well. Perhaps when I regularly took fewer than 3 shots from 100 yards and in. Or even when I started playing competitively.
Important as the above steps were, they all came some time after my game started moving forward.
This step fundamentally changed the way I viewed my golf game and indeed my life.
And yet, it's so simple many wouldn't understand its importance.
I stopped saying "if"...
...and started saying "when".
Unconvinced? Consider these examples:
"If I can get my swing to a point where it repeats and is predictable" versus "When I get my swing to a point where it repeats and is predictable"
"If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you"
"When you can keep your head..."
It takes a future where success is uncertain and failure remains an option and changes it to one where success will happen but is a question of time and effort. For me it was the realisation I was far too motivated and keen to improve at golf for it not to happen. It stopped me saying "I'll never get this stupid game" in my darker moments. Instead I accepted that however far away it might seem, I would get better. That kept me coming back when I might otherwise have become discouraged.
You may be shaking your head as you read this. I can appreciate that this could come across as "positive thinking mumbo-jumbo". All I can say in reply is whilst I understand this point of view, my game has improved significantly after taking this step. It's a step which involves no pain, is easy to make and only you know you've made it.
After all, what exactly have you got to lose?
Dr Geek,
ReplyDeleteThe power of when is a strong one. I think it is more of an admission and commitment than anything else. Someone that says when and means it has made a commitment. I think that is what separates there success from others that just say it.
JG
Thanks John. Committing to improvement is a huge step; I'd done so, so strongly that I realised there was no way I'd allow myself to not improve. There's also the realisation that however much I improve, I'll never be finished - it's a constant work in progress. There's obviously parallels with my day job, so I'm very comfortable with this.
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