Have you ever found yourself out playing, enjoying the game with friends, where everything is going swimmingly well when suddenly out of nowhere you get that thought? It might be on the last hole of a major tournament where all you need to do is par the hole to win, or sink a 3 foot putt to win the championship or shoot your best score, when suddenly a thought pops inside your head causing doubt on your ability to follow through. Well quite simply its a story. I'm sure you've heard the old saying you are what you think. Whilst this holds some truth, the real facts are its not the thought or story we are telling ourselves, its how we chose to react to it, that results in our actions being good or bad. On hearing that story, you have 2 choices;
You can chose to react and let the emotions take over, resulting in ruining your performance or
You can chose to listen to the story and understand what it is trying to tell you.
Whenever we experience doubt or fear in our lives, its our subconscious mind telling us something is wrong. If we chose to listen rather than ignore, we will identify what is wrong and just like a doctor listening to their patient, if we know what is wrong, we can then find an antidote to cure it. Ignoring the story or reacting to it will only result in poor performance, since our focus will not be where it needs to be.
So what should I do?
Listen without emotion, view it from afar and understand what the story is telling you. It could be that you've not been in this position before and feel ill equipped to deal with the emotion. Or it could be you're being asked to take on a shot that you've not played before, or lack the technical skills to execute. Whatever it is, listen and identify what you need to do to remove the weakness from your game. Identifying the problem, will enable you to seek the help you need to improve, or it may identify an area of your game that you need to incorporate into your practice regime.
So listen to your story, make the right choice and unlock your true potential.
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