MENTAL LESSON PLAN 3
By Joan King

The holidays are over and by now you have probably given up on your New Year's Resolutions. This is a good time to find out why will power and resolutions don't work for very long, and how you can program your mind for the success you want.

To create success, it is important to understand how your mind works. We actually have separate parts to our minds, the conscious part and the subconscious part. These parts do different things and can have a hard time relating and communicating with each other.

Your conscious mind is the part that breaks down information into small parts to analyze, evaluate, and make a judgment to solve a problem. The conscious mind also gives us a reason why we do the things we do. If you miss a shot, you will usually state a reason why you missed it. However, it usually isn't the truth. Will power is also in the conscious mind. We all know how long will power lasts….. just until it weakens and the old habit pattern comes back. This conscious part of your mind also has memory limited to information you need everyday such as where you live and your phone number.

But where we really live is in the level below the conscious mind, which is called the subconscious mind. An analogy would be an iceberg with the upper 10% (conscious) being the tip of the iceberg and the lower 90% under the water, the unconscious mind. This part of your mind operates very much like a computer. When you were born your computer had only a small bit of programming in it. From that point on, it was like a video camera. It took in all of your life's experiences through your senses (hearing, seeing, feeling, tasting, and smelling) and filed them in the computer subconscious mind. Unlike the conscious mind, it doesn't change the information. It is just like a computer; GIGO. Your habits and emotions are also in this part of your mind.

To simplify this distinction, the conscious mind is the adult mind taking in information to discriminate between what is desirable and what is not. It then exercises the power of choice and makes a decision. The subconscious mind is more childlike. It believes all the information is reality and it acts on that information.

So if your New Year's Resolution was to stop smoking, your conscious mind made that decision. When you aren't consciously paying attention, your subconscious mind takes over. It is still operating on the years of experience of smoking and has to act on that programming. When you go to the golf course with the decision to have fun and be relaxed and find that you are paired with three really low handicappers, will power goes out the window. Your old programmed fears of not being good enough will probably surface.

Now is the time to start building your subconscious positive programming so it will be automatic when you begin to play golf in the Spring. To understand further how your mind processes suggestions, here are three Universal Laws:

1. The Law of Concentrated Attention
Energy flows where attention goes. When you repeatedly concentrate your attention on an idea or belief, it tends to become true for you. Your subconscious doesn't know the difference between positive and negative suggestions so make sure all yours are what you want. This is how we develop habits, good or bad. This is also the process that advertisers use to implant habitual patterns of thinking to television audiences to buy their products.

Now would be a good time for you to write down your preshot routine and practice mentally and physically (all indoors) over and over until it becomes a habit and you can do it unconsciously. Most golfers want to play more consistently. This is the answer! Use the same preparation routine every time and you will get consistent results.

2. The Law of Reversed Effect
The more you think of NOT doing something the further away the goal of doing it becomes. For example, right now DON'T think of a hot fudge sundae with the chocolate melting over delicious ice cream, topped with whipped cream and a cherry. Of course, that is the first thing that comes into your mind. Your imagination, which is housed in your subconscious mind, will always win over the struggle with your will power, which is housed in your conscious mind. When you look down the fairway from the tee and think to yourself, "DON'T hit it in the water", make sure you then replace that thought and image with the target where you DO want the ball to land.

3. The Law of Dominant Effect
Create the emotion that you already have what you want. A suggestion is more effective when it is combined with a strong emotion. When you feel that you are already successful, you are pulling that energy into your life. Your mind will focus the energy, but the energy comes from the heart. We remember occurrences in our lives that were happy, and times that were painful or stressful. All other experiences have less importance and are forgotten.

Was this holiday season joyful or stressful for you? Or both? Which experience was the most memorable?

Listen to the words you say and the conversation in your head. Hear it the way your subconscious mind does without changing the content. Build a foundation for good self-esteem by putting in two positive messages for every negative one that you hear or say. To play golf at your best requires that you put yourself into a positive state of mind and stay there for four hours. Here are some additional ways to train your brain to move into this positive state:

· Begin to see the good in everything instead of always analyzing and judging what has to be changed.
· Give compliments to others.
· Enjoy compliments given to you. Don't judge the giver or the intention of the giver.
· Learn from your mistakes instead of blaming.
· Give every task 100% of your attention and intention.
· Do the best you can possibly do. If you don't get the results you want, congratulate yourself for your best effort.
· Be grateful for all the things in your life that you enjoy.
· Feel how good it feels when you have completed something successfully.
· In everything you do, anchor a feeling of certainty in your mind, heart and soul.

Finish each day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in;
forget them as soon as you can.

Tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely
and with too high a spirit
to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
----- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Entrain Your Heart & Brain for Peak Performance!© Copyright PMI 2002. All Rights Reserved.

***** "After one consultation session with you I have regained my confidence by using your mental tools instead of trying to execute golf swing mechanics. Last week I was runner-up in the club match play tournament. Yesterday I shot the lowest round of my life". ----G.F., MD "The hypnosis session I had with you was great and helped a lot in my first attempt at Q-School. I finished in the top ten and was pleased with how relaxed and confident I was under all the pressure". ----B.T.N., Developmental Tour Player ***** Don't delay! Improve your golf game today! Order PMI self-hypnosis tapes and CDs at http://www.pmi4.com

If this monthly enewsletter has been helpful to you, please forward it to your friends so they can have more fun playing the game of golf while lowering their scores. You can download the previous PMI newsletter issues by logging on at www.pmi4.com

If you have a question or need help with your mental game, email Joan at Positive Mental Imagery, info@pmi4.com Also, please share with us how this website information has helped you improve your performance.