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Focus On Golf

AuthorHouse

Contents

Prelude: New Beginnings...........................................................1Chapter One – The Awakening.................................................12Chapter Two – A Nurturing Attitude..........................................21Chapter Three – Being Genuine...............................................26Chapter Four – Being Open Minded............................................37Chapter Five – Readiness: The Goal of Preparation...........................46Chapter Six – Performance: The Goal of Action...............................57Chapter Seven – Recommitting: Staying The Course............................69Chapter Eight – Composure: Being Purposeful In Golf.........................76Chapter Nine – Mindfulness: Monitoring the Patterns.........................86Chapter Ten – Imagery: The Perspective of Performance.......................102Chapter Eleven – Focusing: Better Performance Exercises.....................109Chapter Twelve – The Edge: The Gift of Wholeness............................132

Chapter One

If you want to change your game, it's time to awaken your mind and senses to a new way of approaching your golf. This awakening is about creating a new vision of how to play golf. It's about committing to a productive approach to golf. It's about considering how your beliefs, attitudes, and behavior habits influence your conduct on the golf course. It's about having a whole new outlook.

This outlook will consider the perspective of what's possible for your game instead of what's wrong with it. The average golfer is usually stifled by thoughts of what's wrong with their golf. I suggest you consider how to achieve what's possible? Every golfer knows their potential is much more than their present performance level. So, how about committing to work toward your potential?

Every time you step on the golf course, there exists the possibility that you will learn more about how to play your best golf. However, the only way you'll realize that is by being awake to the possibility when it happens.

If you fail to look for it, it will pass you by as it occurs. So, it helps to be looking for such possibilities. It helps to be looking in the right direction by having the perspective that it may occur.

Trying to fix what is wrong is a restrictive approach to golf. It's restrictive because it only considers what's out of place with regard to the skills you've already experienced. It neglects to consider the maximum potential of your game. If you were truly an awakened golfer, what skills would you possess?

Having that perspective will guide you down the path to your best golf. So, consider there's much more for your game than simply fixing your old incomplete game. Consider an ever growing and expanding game, one that will always offer you new levels of experience, enjoyment, and learning. And consider that such an approach to golf is right there in front of you. You simply need to see it that way.

The trouble is, your old beliefs and understandings create a smoke screen that covers your present perspective. The smoke screen hides the trailhead to your potential. If the trailhead is hidden, you will never find the path you desire. You might say your present beliefs camouflage the vision of what's possible. So, even when you are looking for it, it is hidden. Therefore, the awakening involves creating clarity with your vision. It's about awakening a crystal clear image of what's possible. As soon as you clear away the smoke screen, a new outlook will appear, an outlook expressing awakened views of life's potential.

The Vision

The new outlook will contain a clear perspective. Having such a perspective is the foundation for growth and productivity. This is because, the type of perspective you create is the type of diet you feed your game. It is also because, your physical actions and behaviors follow the guidelines set down by your internal dialogues. All your inner workings, your beliefs, habitual thoughts, and ideologies create your present disposition. Your disposition is the underlying approach you have toward life. It defines your inclinations to act the way you do in each and every situation you face. Thus, it is a way of being created by and accepted by your inner self.

Your disposition, your attitude, your thought patterns, and your responses are all nurtured by your perspective. Therefore, you would be wise to create a perspective that is always concerned with providing the best nutrients to your mind, body, and spirit. In this way, perspective is the diet of being healthy and whole.

Such perspective is usually anchored in a code of understanding between willing participants. This code is more than a set of rules to be attached to. It is also different than a formula for success. It is more a vision, or an ideal, as to how awakened people conduct themselves. For example, soldiers abide by rules, regulations, and a chain of command; however, they live by a code of honor. The code of honor is simply a vision of how the ideal soldier conducts himself.

In ancient times, warriorship was the standard of conduct. The vision of warriorship was one of authenticity. A warrior was to strive to be genuine in every moment of life. A warrior would face every moment with the intent of being awake. She would approach each endeavor with unwavering commitment. A warrior never quits. Neither does a true golfer. Golfers have their own code of honor, their own ethics. We call it etiquette, and its founding principle is integrity.

Integrity is the ability to honor one's commitments. As my coach once put it, "The basis for his integrity is, you could say, his destinal resolve,..... a resolve that steers the course of his life. His goals, values and purpose in life have a foundation which I have rarely seen in my years of teaching. I can truly say that he is his own person and not simply the creation of various forces impacting on him in society. He has commitments in the various areas of his life, his relationships, his work and his golf, and not only are those commitments in alignment, but he honors them. That is what true integrity is."

The person who has integrity conducts herself with dignity. The warrior expresses dignity while honoring the code, and the golfer expresses dignity while honoring the game's etiquette. Honoring golf's code of etiquette means that you conduct yourself with dignity in all situations. Thus, to honor the code, you conduct yourself with dignity in all situations. Etiquette, integrity, and honor are always present to in the genuine golfer's disposition. This means dignity is the disposition of the honorable golfer.

The warrior's vision also included the principle that you always conduct yourself as if you were the role model for all those who will follow in your footsteps. You embody the principle so that those who look up to you for advice, guidance, and support will also understand the vision to follow. Thus, the vision expresses the time-tested ideal of leading by example. You can think about it this way, if everyone you ever touched wrote a note about how they remembered you, what type of conduct would you like them to associate with you – conduct yourself in that manner.

The last part of the vision is the idea...