“Control*
If you are feeling as if you have lost control of your golf game and your confidence is waning, it is time for you to look at your thoughts and beliefs. To be responsible for your thoughts, emotions, and beliefs is to be responsible for your life and your golf successes. If you are not aware of what you are thinking and feeling, you have no self-control because you have no awareness. You are in control when you are aware of your thoughts. Then you can choose whether to act on them or not.
Having control of your thoughts and emotions all depends on your internal self-talk. It is up to you to choose whether you are going to enjoy the challenge of the game or get anxious and nervous over the pressure of trying to control the outcome. As Fred Shoemaker said, ‘When you take the evaluation and judgment out, what is left is awareness.’
Once you have the awareness that you create your internal world, you will realize that you can change it into productive thoughts. Your body learns what it is told to do. Learn to tell it what you want, not what you don’t want.
Control of the body is not accomplished by force. Control is accomplished by becoming relaxed and imagining and visualizing what you intend. If you do not begin to control and use your brain, then someone else will either control your mind for you or, worse yet, you just leave your mental training to chance. You need to control your self-talk and also filter out what you hear from others around you, including your friends, family, and coach.
The first thing to do is to determine what your mental stumbling blocks are. Take note of your limiting thoughts abut the golf course or how you view your upcoming round. For example, you might think, ‘I worry about playing with others who are better than I am.’
Most golfers are intimidated when playing with better golfers. During the round they worry about what the better golfer might think of them and their golf game. This kind of thinking causes anxiety and a lack of mental and emotional control.
Decide what is under your control and what is not.
The way someone else plays the game is not under your control. However, letting go of worry and thoughts about someone else’s game is under your control.”
*Excerpts are from Chapter 18; Control, “THE HEART OF GOLF, Access Your Supreme Intelligence for Peak Performances” now available on www.createspace.com/6307102
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