Create a philosophy to success

I am sure you have all heard the saying, “Keep It Simple, Stupid”, yet despite this, you’ve most likely fallen into the golf trap of complicating the game by having myriad thoughts enter your mind during a round of golf. This is one of the biggest mental game mistakes that golfers make. One of the main reasons for this is that you come to the course mentally under-prepared for sticking to a game plan.

One of the best ways to combat this is to create your own ‘philosophy for success’.

Your philosophy for success will consist of two or three specific processes revolving around your game that you will remain focused on for each shot, NO MATTER WHAT.

I say ‘no matter what’, because most golfers have a tendency to jump from swing thought to swing thought and never really embed a consistent process that they can look back on and see whether or not it was beneficial.

To be able to do that, we need to give a certain process enough ‘volume’ to be able to analyze it correctly and give it enough of chance to see if it is worthwhile continuing to implement into our routines or try something new.

When I talk about ‘volume’, I would say that approximately five rounds of golf using the same two or three processes will give you a good ability to look back and see whether or not these processes really helped you to play your best (or close to your best) during the many different situations you will face in a round of golf.

You can look at each process individually and decide whether or not to keep that specific process for the next five-round phase, fine -tune it slightly for the next phase or completely ditch it and create a whole new process to focus on.

To help you build a high-quality philosophy I would break each shot into 3 components:

*The Start

*The Middle

*The End

The Start is when you have reached where each shot is lying. What is your philosophy for this aspect of the shot? It might consist of:

*Gathering all information

*Switch your focus on

*Let go of the last shot

The Middle is the period in-between you coming up with the yardage and the shot you want to hit. What is your philosophy for this aspect of the shot? It might consist of:

*Feeling a specific feel in your swing

*Attaching an image to the shot you want to hit

*Focusing on one specific swing thought in your practice swings

The End is the period where you begin to take your stance. It might consist of:

*Achieving a quiet mind

*Focusing your vision on the target

*Implementing a trigger word to increase confidence

Once you have specifically created your sequence, go and put that sequence into play for the next five rounds and make sure that no matter what your results, you will stick to these sequences during that period.

So as you can see, creating the specific sequences that make up your philosophy is extremely important to helping you achieve a positive continuity to your shots. Take your time building these sequences so that you feel comfortable and confident during those five rounds. This will help you achieve not only a better result, but a more consistent result.

Time to build your new Philosophy to Success and remember: K.I.S.S!!

  glazier, mental, mind