Like achieving anything in life, mindset plays an important role in whether you succeed or fail.
Too many times, I’ve set off on goals that seem unrealistic or unachievable. I doomed myself from the start by thinking this way.
I felt like I bit off more than I could chew.
In the past, I used to do the same exact thing with my New Year’s Resolutions. I gave those up, because they were often unrealistic because they overwhelmed my brain. I would get anxiety and give up as soon as the first few road bumps hit.
What I wish now, is that I could go back in time and give myself the following advice…
“Yes, there will be road bumps, there will be setbacks, and you may just fail altogether. However, you need to build smaller goals underneath the big goal. Work on knocking those small goals out. Stop placing hard and fast deadlines on it all. Give it some ebb and flow. Allow for mistakes, road blocks, and failures. Just pick yourself up and keep moving.”
Only after years of fails and successes was I able to piece that information together. Wisdom.
And still I have to force myself to set my mind up for success rather than failure.
If you subscribe to our YouTube Channel, listen to our podcasts, read our blog articles, and follow us on Twitter or Facebook – I know you are a SERIOUS GOLFER.
Serious golfers want to break 90, 80, and ultimately 70.
However, a perceived lack of time exists in most golfers minds… and I’ll be honest… golf is a time consuming sport.
To get good at the game of golf, you need to devote time. The problem is, I see a ton of golfers spending that time unwisely. Focusing on minutiae instead of the main beef.
My sincere belief is that any golfer with 15 to 30 minutes a day and a CLEAR ROAD MAP can become a Single Digit Handicap golfer.
Now, imagine for a moment you actually are a SINGLE DIGIT HANDICAPPER. Imagine you routinely break 80. How does that feel?
Pretty good, right?
Now, imagine for a moment the amount of work it took to achieve this goal. If you are like me, the first time I thought of becoming a single digit golfer, I became overwhelmed. When you get overwhelmed, your chances of quitting are high. Overwhelmed is the beginnings of believing you can’t achieve the goal at hand.
Roadblock… and the wrong mindset. I almost doomed myself from the start.
Instead, I should have changed my focus to performing the consistent baby steps I would need to take. Now imagine for a moment, I stopped thinking about shooting a 75 and I focused on lowering my putts per round from 34 to 30. Now, that’s an achievable goal.
My Challenge to you this week, formulate a plan for the next 6 weeks. Break the plan down into baby steps…don’t over-complicate things here. You don’t need to focus on EVERYTHING. Focus on ONE primary mission.
Here are a few idea’s for you:
- Reduce 3 Putts (and putts per round from 34 to 30 in 6 weeks)
- Increase Up and Downs from Around the Green (move from 50% to 75% conversion)
- Get the Ball on the Green from Sand (find the green 8 out of 10 times)
- Find the Fairways More Consistently (go from hitting 50% of 75%)
- Learn Yardages to within +/- 5 for EVERY Club in my Bag (distance dialing for better club choice)
- Plan My Rounds Before I Tee Off (clear strategy of giving myself best chance for success)
Yeah, that’s a lot of stuff to pick from… but if you break them down into chunks… there’s no reason you couldn’t go from shooting 91 to 75 within 12 months… maybe sooner depending on your athletic ability and time you can devote.
The reality is, if you want to get better – you need to reverse engineer your game. Instead of focusing on the result, we need to focus on the CAUSE.
Avoid over complicating golf. You have enough problems to deal with every day. 🙂
When you do that… you eliminate overwhelm and you set yourself up for progress.
Focus on the cause, one chunk at a time, consistently.
And if I had to give you just one piece of advice to succeed at anything… it’s to be consistent. SHOW UP EVERY DAMN DAY. Even if you aren’t feeling great, do something that takes you closer.
Look, the most successful people I know aren’t the most athletic… they aren’t the smartest… they just stuck with it. Whatever they succeeded at, they never quit or made excuses. They kept going when others quit.
Success can be boring. Success is rinse and repeat. Success isn’t a new driver. Success isn’t a new golf tip to fix your swing.
Success is a simple road map and consistent application.
I believe in you, and I know you can break 90, 80, and even 70. I believe you can make the PGA or Senior Tour, and I sure as hell think you can become the club champion. You just need to plan out your baby steps and get to work. And you don’t need to spend hours per day practicing. A few minutes here or there is all you need.
If planning out your own road map seems overwhelming… don’t worry… because I planned one out for you. It’s called the Single Digit System.
And you may have seen Module 1 of the SDS called The Power and Distance Challenge.
If not, you can Click here to check it out… and coming soon, you’ll be seeing the other modules released (7 total spanning 12 months). Taking you from where you are to a Single Digit Golfer. If you want to get a headstart, just click the link above and get rolling.
And… be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel where Rich and I will detail out how to build your plan by breaking your goal down into bit sized chunks and then making it baby step easy to follow… but more on that later this week.
