This is an article for all those golfers who have wanted some new standards for 2009 but have found themselves back in their old ways or are concerned about whether they can maintain the change throughout the year. If you are on fire and doing great for 2009 you may find it an interesting read also to learn how to avoid some mental landmines that may come your way at some stage soon. I hope it sheds some light on how to break the cycle of comfortable habits and allows you to look back at the end of the year and be proud of your efforts.

Why do we want to set new standards each year?

We seem to have different parts to our minds. On one hand we have this voice within us that says we can do great things given some work and dedication. This voice of potential is the one that gets us to do things we may find tough at first. It is the part within us that wants the absolute best of our abilities.

There is also another voice that lives within all of us. This is the voice of comfort and habit which urges us to take it easy and just do the thing that feels good at the time. This part of our mind is very sneaky in winning the argument of convincing us that the new standard is unreasonable and not worth the effort. So it’s natural to want to improve and it also is natural that there is human resistance to that change. Your job is to work with your mind so that the resistance is small enough for long enough for the new changes to take hold.

Did you set the right goals in the first place?

Unfortunately, for most people they have stopped setting goals because of past failures. These are the worst types of goals because your brain will now guide you towards something random and not so great.

Let’s talk for a second about the right types of new goals/standards for the year. Some people really do set up the whole habit changing game so they are going to fail before they have even had a chance to succeed. Common golfing New Year’s resolutions might be something like “ok, this year I am dropping the h’cap into single figures” or “I am going to practise for an hour a day 4 times a week.”

I am not sure whether these are the right goals for you because largely it comes down to different golfers want different things. Probably one of the best statements with setting the right level of goals I have heard is that we tend to overestimate what we can do in one year and tend to underestimate what we can do in 10 years!

I am all for full blown commitment and a healthy obsession towards things. In reality, that’s how anyone reaches the best of their trade or skill. But getting there may need a little blending into your life. So if the goal is to be practising four to five times a week for an hour try and give yourself time to build into it if in 2008 you were lucky to be practising once a fortnight.

If you do want to do something new with your golf this year I suggest on one page you write down all your achievements for 2008, try and aim for around 10 points. From there write down around 10 to 15 things you want with your golf in 2009. Writing down your desires is a great way to start making them take form. Get a nice blend of results based goals and process goals.

Once you have something you are reasonably happy with it may be an idea to share those goals with your coach/good friend and ask her/him what needs to happen to get the job done in a manageable way so that you can still have a life outside of golf as well!

What to do if you have a habit of breaking your word?

Integrity or in different words, doing what you say you are going to do, can be called the mother of all mental skills. Everything good starts from a positive thought and then can flow from there into action. If you keep letting yourself down and breaking your word your momentum will be shocking and cause almost all your efforts to be wasted time after time.

If you find yourself in the position of not being able to stick to your goals it’s probably because you have weak mental muscles! The best way to fix that is to get the mind into the gym as quick as possible. A successful man once told me that I should ‘swallow a frog’ early in each day. What he meant by this was to do a really tough activity that you don’t want to do but know you need to early in the day. From this you build huge amounts of self confidence on a daily basis. For example, you get to the golf course and practise bunkers before work which is the weakest part of your game and the part you like practising the least.

Many people live a lot of their life breaking their word everyday and pay heavily for it in the lack of results they get. You may need to accept the idea that not everything has to feel good for it to be helping you. Some of the most uncomfortable things you do could be the best things for you and your golfing improvement. A great example of this in golf is making a swing change with the help of a coach. Ask any teaching pro how hard they find it to convince pupils to stick to the new changes.

How will you know when you have made the change properly?

Once you realise you are starting to do the practise each day or start thinking the right way you need to reward yourself immediately and regularly all the way along the improvement journey. Don’t wait till you handicap has gone from 18 to 9 before you give yourself some mental or physical treats.

A good rule of thumb for a deep habit change is around three months. If you can show yourself that you can do something consistently for three months I believe you can then go on to have a much easier time at maintaining that habit.

The top 3 things for your next game to help you stick to your New Years desires!

1. Keep the faith in what you are working on. If it’s a swing change see it through and stop second guessing it.

2. If you have a great round, reward yourself quickly and remind yourself that you are on a three month trial period so you need to get back on the work ethic as soon as possible.

3. If you have a disaster round, learn from it and shrug it off. Turn yourself into a learner by not making the same mistakes next time.

If you want to understand your mind and golf game a lot faster you may be interested in mental coaching. You can contact me about arranging an individual mental golf assessment session. Often coaching can help you apply the things you already know. Mental coaching can be done over the phone so it may be applicable to you even if you live in another state/country. The website will show you some products and services available to train your golfing mind.

Mat Howe is a Golf Mind Coach who has mentally coached golfers from the international professional playing standard through to beginners. He currently works with several Touring Professionals, Trainee professionals and Amateurs throughout the world. Mat is based at Port Kembla Golf Course on the South Coast of NSW and can be contacted on 0410 695 605 or you can find interesting things at his website

www.mindyourgolf.com.au.

Caption: Who knows what goals Tiger sets but his discipline in sticking to what he's working on is a role model for us all