Golf and life ...happy aggregations of best intentions
I'm a golfer. An ordinary one ...but a keen one. I, like most others, find it often so frustrating. What should be so simple ...can appear so hard! And yet...
Improving our golf game is a lot like life at large: we can too easily get lost in the sheer complexity and as a result lose our way. Yet, breaking free from this mire can be simply a matter of refocusing on what it is that we are really trying to achieve.
I find in golf that there are often periods during which I struggle with complications until eventually coming to see that I have been too preoccupied with my own technique rather than focusing on: where it is that I really need to be ...'near the flag' (from the fairway) or, even more so ...'in the hole' (when on the green).
Instead of the target at hand, it is so easy to be distracted by ‘where the feet are in relation to the ball’ or indeed to be preoccupied by things such as ‘how far up it is that I am taking back my club-head in the swing-arc’ or indeed a hundred other things. Minor changes seem to loom large and confound the obvious intention.
Frustration and resulting poor performance can so easily come from getting lost in the detail. The solution being: to never lose sight of what it is that you are directly trying to achieve! Keeping in mind that the 'means-to-the-end' (competencies) should be thoughtfully addressed and practised 'before' we seek to engage. Easy to say, yet too often by-passed. Preparation, before engagement.
The big picture should always remain the guiding target during execution!
Happy days!
Grahame Flynn
