MESSAGE #764 HOW GOLF CAN HELP YOU…
Know what you want
Believe in what you want
See it happen
Recently, I took a yoga class with one of the top yoga instructors in the country, the great Naime Jezzeny in New Hope, PA. He walked into the class and said “I have a book for you.” So he let me borrow a book called, “The Seven Principles of Golf – Mastering the Mental Game On and Off the Course” by Darrin Gee.
I’m not a golfer, but that doesn’t matter…
The Third Principle in his book is VISUALIZE THE SHOT. Gee breaks visualization down into three steps:
1. Knowing what you want
2. Picturing or visualizing what you want (the path of the ball) in your mind’s eye
3. Trusting and committing to that visualization 100 percent
When I teach tennis, after a student misses a shot, I always first ask them, “Did you have a target?”
99 percent of the time they say no.
When I ask them if they had a target, that’s code for “I know you didn’t have a target.”
Even if you hit a great shot, it’s luck if you didn’t plan to do it. At any level, you need to have a target. In any area of life, you need to have a purpose.
Next, visualize the path of the ball. When you are playing your sport, you should visualize the ball going where you want, the trajectory, spin, etc. And if you are a student, musician or business professional, you should visualize the steps you will take to reach your goal.
Finally, trust and commit to your visualization. You need to be confident in your plan. Expect it to happen. The truth is, sometimes it may not happen, but if you focused on the right process, that’s all that matters. Perhaps you need to make an adjustment. And that’s okay.
Sports and life are not about doing something one hundred times. Sports and life are about making one hundred adjustments. If you focus on the things you can control, you will have more fun, continue to improve and win more.
Thanks for reading.