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Master Your Game
This Issue: Enhancing Your Mental Game
Dear Reader,
Summary
You have a target, and have been working on consistent
focused action.
The technical part of your swing is now coming together. You are starting to feel a sense of confidence in what
you are doing, but the results are less than expected given your hard work.
Results are not just about the physical skill or the technical knowledge. Being able to consistently score depends on
your mental game. In this issue, we discuss the four areas of the mental game:
- Having a winning attitude
- Being centered emotionally
- Being positive, and
- Playing in the zone.
Winning Attitude
A winning attitude is believing in yourself and maintaining confidence in the face of
adversity. Your attitude is fickle; it can change at a moment’s notice. To build confidence,
you must be vigilant about acknowledging yourself.
Greg Norman in the 1996 Masters Golf Tournament provides an example of a winning attitude
gone south. Norman was the favorite to win, and at the end of the third day was up by six strokes.
Within 24 hours, however, Nick Faldo had chipped away at his lead and won the Masters by five
strokes. Norman’s confident stride from the day before shifted into slumped shoulders and a
blank expression. Strong and positive one day, in total disarray the next.
To maintain confidence and have that winning attitude, remind yourself every day that you did
something well. Every coaching session, I ask my clients what they have done well. It’s important
for them to recognize their own strengths.
Emotionally Centered
Your emotions can knock you out of your game faster
than anything else. Three emotions can play havoc with your
golf game or any other game you choose to play – fear, anger and worry.
Fear is the voice of self-doubt. It causes anxiety before a round of
golf, gives you first-tee jitters and may make you “choke” under pressure.
It will stop you from taking on new challenges, thereby hampering your
game of life just like your golf game. Learning to relax your body will lessen the anxiety.
Anger causes you to lose your rhythm and your ability to focus and think clearly.
It also makes others around you uncomfortable. Recognize that anger is predominately
rooted in lack of self-esteem. By strengthening how you feel about yourself,
control will begin to return
Focusing on what others think of you for fear that you will make a fool of
yourself is another barrier that will keep you at the driving range rather
than stepping out to play your game. Taking risks and acknowledging your successes
is required to build your sense of self-confidence. Working with a coach is a
way for you to receive support and immediate feedback while exercising your confidence muscle.
Be Positive
There is a mind/body connection between positive thinking and
the strength of our muscles. Positive thoughts generate a feeling of
excitement, possibility and hope. Harv Eker states in The Secrets of
the Millionaire Mind that our past impacts our thoughts, which impact
our emotions, which affect our actions. The key to becoming emotionally
centered is to alter your thinking and the language that you use. In
Golf’s Mental Hazards, Alan Shapiro’s recommendation, like Eker’s, is
to rewire your emotions – use positive thinking to restructure your cognitive processes.
If positive thinking and language establishes a picture of what you would like
to have happen, the opposite is also true. In golf if you see a pond of water and
you think “don’t hit the ball in the water,” what happens? You will likely hit the
ball in the water. Your mind processes in pictures and does not recognize the word
“not.” Hitting the ball in the water is merely your body’s best response to
accomplish the task you set for it.
The same is true at work. Thinking about what you can’t do and what is wrong
with work and with whom you have trouble getting along will only serve to generate
negative emotions thereby decreasing your effectiveness. Stress will build up
further compromising your game. The antidote: think positively, speak positively
and surround yourself with positive people.
Playing in the Zone
When you play in the zone there is no worry or frustration. You have perfect
clarity. Time seems to move slowly, yet flies by. Everything comes with an amazing
sense of ease. When you are in the zone, you are having a hazard-free round of golf.
What does the zone look like? Here’s an example: one client amazes me with the
quantity of work she accomplishes between each coaching session. Emotionally,
she is very centered and with coaching has developed a greater sense of clarity,
which in turn has heightened her focus. In the past year she has increased her
business five fold and is about to publish a new book.
To play in the zone you must successfully manage your attitude, be emotionally
centered and surround yourself with positive energy. These are all pre- requisites.
When you have that, positive results will naturally follow.
Swinging in the zone,
Jacque Small
Catalyst Business Coaching is a corporate development organization. It works with people
who want to achieve a greater sense of success for both themselves and others in the organization.
It supports people to develop strong interpersonal communication skills and build foundations to
develop dynamic teams. Jacque Small, principal and owner of Catalyst, founded the company in 2000..
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