First off, I really sympathize with you. You’ve gone through multiple major life stressors that even just one of them could take a person down. The quick answer to your question is a resounding no…you don’t need to rectify your life for my work to help your golf game.
But I want to do better than that for you.
It’s awesome for me when I get emails from golfers worldwide telling me how their game has improved. But I don’t just do this to lower golfer’s scores. In fact, I wouldn’t take the time to make all these videos and the years of writing posts and the technical headaches I go through daily to keep all these website functions working…unless I was making a difference in golfer’s lives OUTSIDE the course.
There’s a little bit of personal development help in everything I’ve ever created but my latest project: “From Range To Course” has my highest level teachings that help to change core beliefs at the unconscious level. You mentioned “I can never do enough or be enough” as an example of a limiting belief that folks carry around with them their whole lives like a ball and chain.
I get that. I used to carry around: “I don’t deserve” and “I’m small, so I don’t count” for many years. THAT is what held me back from scoring lower in golf…not my swing. When I cleared that, my scores went down.
I never changed my swing on the way to scoring in the 70’s.
AND, there’s definitely hope for everyone out there to clear your interference patterns (mental junk) and re-program some values that are more in line with your purpose for living the rest of your life here.
It all starts with understanding and mastering emotions. And the biggest one is FEAR. You need to understand that FEAR is your biggest hangup in golf and life. The reason you miss 3 foot putts in competition is FEAR. It’s also why you can hit the ball great on the range and not on the course.
Now, there’s only 2 kinds of fear we experience. 1. Fear of physical harm to the body. and 2. Fear of emotions.
There’s nothing else. Fear of physical harm to the body is a good thing and it keeps us safe. But fear of emotions is what drives us daily. Why? Because we don’t know how to deal with difficult emotions like Boredom, Sadness, Loneliness, Inadequacy, Guilt, (which we bundle up into one word we call: STRESS) and so we go about our lives trying everything we can to avoid them at all costs. But, you can’t.
That’s a failing strategy because you are going to feel bad at times no matter what.
It’s much more empowering and fear-destroying to, instead, MASTER your emotions.
I go into more detail in my program “From Range To Course” which is all about eliminating fear and mastering emotions.
I’m going to say something that I think is really profound that sums up the basis for mastering your emotions and mental state that will help you with your golf game for sure, but more importantly, your life and here it is.
Pain, physical and emotional…are inevitable.
Suffering is optional.
Suffering comes from a resistance to “what is” or a resistance to reality.
AND, It makes it so much easier to stop resisting reality when you live your life with a purpose or meaning.
Read Victor Frankels book: Man’s search for meaning if you stuggle with that concept.
Every day I work with athletes in my office and via phone and Skype to help them live this way: purposeful…that’s the secret to performing to your potential. If you’re interested in that, just reply to any email I send you.
Mike, my golf products will not only help you with your game, but they will help you integrate your current reality with a perception about your reality that works for you…and that will generate more good feelings and keep out the fear…and your scores will go down as a by-product.
greens and fairways,
Craig
