Mickey Wright, the greatest woman golfer ever, once said, “…psychology – is as integral a part of good golf as an efficient swing.” She also stated, “A swing is a swing is a swing.” I love her (Happy 80th Belated Birthday, Mickey!.
With two swings today, I scored my first “birdie.” It was so exciting. The bizarre thing – The Husband, with his sixth sense, predicted it. Whaaat!!! He shall now be known as The Birdie Predictor. (For those who don’t play or even like golf, “birdie” is when you score 1-under “par” on a golf hole. Par is the expected number of strokes it should take to get the ball in the hole.)
Rewind to my first post a few weeks ago. I wrote that I sucked at golf – totally sucked raw onions (I even wanted to bop a fellow golfer guy in the head with my driver.) And, you know what? I still suck on a lot of levels – a lot. The difference now – my psychology. In essence, my non-thinking. I’m trying to get my “head” out of each swing, each movement, and into the fun of the game. I have to consciously put Negative Nelly in a “time out” when I play because she REALLY wants to get into my head, rag on me and tell me how terrible I’m playing. Shut up, Nelly. You're not playing with me in my sand trap.
And isn’t that what it boils down to when we are dealing with just about anything? What’s in our head? In life, when we face the vast enormity of a situation, we can choose to recoil into ourselves and keep the same old, same old Negative Nellies in our head or we can choose to fully extend, swing ourselves into motion, confront what’s in front of us and get rid of the stinkin’ thinkin’.
Here is how I see life being like golf – from tee to hole:
The Tee represents doubts, fears, questioning – we’re standing on top of the enormous situation.
The Fairway represents all sorts of mental and emotional directions we can choose to take.
The Green represents hope -- solid options/answers from various angles.
The Hole represents finding/choosing the answer/solution, problem solved. In the hole.
AND, if you don’t reach the hole, pick up the ball, put it in your pocket, and start over. Next hole. Different options.
Zenitude for today:
Drive down the enormity of a situation into something manageable.
Iron out the problem. Pitch in the positive. Put for birdie.