In order to find internal stability, some people like to do meditation, others yoga or out for a run early morning. One of the things from which I have taken some lessons for mental toughness is golf, because it is ungrateful and frustrating sport to get results, yet extremely rewarding. There are times when you dominate your swing, stroke, have the best equipment, team, caddie and weather conditions, but if you mind is off, so will be your score and your game.
During the past year or so, I have considerably reduced my time for golf and I have even migrated to other sports, such as running, mostly due to time limitations. Nevertheless, the lessons are already learned and implemented on my everyday life, and it is highly probable that with other sports you come to develop some of these positive change.
Here a few ideas I want to share so you apply them to your activities.
1. Enjoy
Always remember why you started in the first place. Sometimes in golf you get so caught up in the non-sense like perfectionism, frustrations of that missed-by-a-centimeter-shot and scoring, or even equipment that you forget the simple things like enjoy your friends, the time outdoors or those nice shots when striking the ball well.
In the office it can be the same. Sometimes you get caught up in conflicts, the difficulty of processes, the audits or questioning that you forget the positive things. This is a good time to bring up your long-term objective and remember that these little actions will take you there, enable the positive filter in your mind and move forward, get back to basics and smile because at that point, maybe you won't solve the world in the short term, but you are improving on your character and personality.
2. Practice
with a purpose.
As with many sports, golf requires practice, and lots of it. Nevertheless, it is easy to get lost and try to do everything but accomplish nothing. At this point is when you have to narrow it down to what you really need, maintaining front-sight focus on 1 task and not on the inefficient multitasking.
Identify your needs and set a plan according to those needs. For example, in golf you can easily improve your scores with short game (putts and approaches), so establish a higher share of your practice time to that, between 40% and 50% of the session. Then understand, besides the short game, where you are losing your score (maybe your driver is always out of bounds, or your are missing the greens because the irons are way off) and dedicate the rest of the session to that.
Relating to your business environment, just revert to the basics of time-management, for instance, at first identify the things you need to get done, then establish their order-of-urgency and finally start executing. It sounds extremely simple, but, as in golf, you are focusing on your result and these actions will take you there while you avoid diversion.
As with many sports, golf requires practice, and lots of it. Nevertheless, it is easy to get lost and try to do everything but accomplish nothing. At this point is when you have to narrow it down to what you really need, maintaining front-sight focus on 1 task and not on the inefficient multitasking.
Identify your needs and set a plan according to those needs. For example, in golf you can easily improve your scores with short game (putts and approaches), so establish a higher share of your practice time to that, between 40% and 50% of the session. Then understand, besides the short game, where you are losing your score (maybe your driver is always out of bounds, or your are missing the greens because the irons are way off) and dedicate the rest of the session to that.
Relating to your business environment, just revert to the basics of time-management, for instance, at first identify the things you need to get done, then establish their order-of-urgency and finally start executing. It sounds extremely simple, but, as in golf, you are focusing on your result and these actions will take you there while you avoid diversion.
3. Let
go of the past and be here now.
This applies for both bad and good shots. Sounds familiar? "omg, that ball was supposed to land there, not here", "the flag or the wind weren't as I wanted", "my partner gave me the wrong number". In the end these are excuses you tell yourself to avoid the responsibility of your game. For bad shots its not my fault, for good shots, its because I'm that good.
The beauty of golf is that no matter what shot you play it will last for the time it takes to walk to the ball, which you should either enjoy and brag or swallow your pride and move on, keeping in mind that as soon as you find the ball, what matters is the next shot.
How many times do you encounter these kind of excuses or success with your everyday life of business environment? Don't bite yourself from what should have, could have, would have, or what you deserve because you accomplish or you did something. The past is gone but guess what? you have a new and clean chance to push further.
4. Develop a routine and stick to it under pressure.
Before each shot, you have to develop a routine. Take the club, select the target, face the ball, breath, and swing. If any of these steps are interrupted, your routine is broken and you should exit your stance and start all over. This also happens with professional tennis, where players like Nadal do something like : untuck your underwear, comb your hair behind your ear, bounce the ball 3 times, then serve.
With your daily routine you have to shield the process from distractions, pressure, and gain confidence that no matter what happens externally, you remain focused and tight. Translating to your life, in general, you must develop your routine which will help you the most to focus when things break into havoc.
Some examples include reading your book no matter how tired you are, eating your breakfast every day, doing your sports no matter, calling your friends and spending time with your family. The same applies for your business environment, keep smiling, keep returning your calls, keep coaching your team and doing your meetings, always build your schedule and stick to it.
5. Go for it
Sometimes we give so much thought upon acting, that we don't feel confortable with decisions or actions we take. All it is needed is act on instincts, knowledge and preparation. Your mind has it, so why not use it? In golf, the longer you hold the club before a shot, the longer you stand still trying to settle your feet, position, the more you "think" about the shot, the worst it will be.
I have proved this to myself many times when you have a "pressure shot", for example, a first-tee shot early in the morning, where several groups of people are together watching (among course staff, other golfers in line, your own partners etc), no warmup and even sometimes with a couple of months after not playing. With all these conditions you have two choices: Scare yourself and panic by thinking all the odds against the shot, or just grab your club, stick to your routine with your objective in mind and swing it as you know it.
In the end, I leave you with this simple but powerful quote from Bobby Jones, so we can reflect on how many times when things need to get done in spite of .. our mind is what gets in the way.
This applies for both bad and good shots. Sounds familiar? "omg, that ball was supposed to land there, not here", "the flag or the wind weren't as I wanted", "my partner gave me the wrong number". In the end these are excuses you tell yourself to avoid the responsibility of your game. For bad shots its not my fault, for good shots, its because I'm that good.
The beauty of golf is that no matter what shot you play it will last for the time it takes to walk to the ball, which you should either enjoy and brag or swallow your pride and move on, keeping in mind that as soon as you find the ball, what matters is the next shot.
How many times do you encounter these kind of excuses or success with your everyday life of business environment? Don't bite yourself from what should have, could have, would have, or what you deserve because you accomplish or you did something. The past is gone but guess what? you have a new and clean chance to push further.
4. Develop a routine and stick to it under pressure.
Before each shot, you have to develop a routine. Take the club, select the target, face the ball, breath, and swing. If any of these steps are interrupted, your routine is broken and you should exit your stance and start all over. This also happens with professional tennis, where players like Nadal do something like : untuck your underwear, comb your hair behind your ear, bounce the ball 3 times, then serve.
With your daily routine you have to shield the process from distractions, pressure, and gain confidence that no matter what happens externally, you remain focused and tight. Translating to your life, in general, you must develop your routine which will help you the most to focus when things break into havoc.
Some examples include reading your book no matter how tired you are, eating your breakfast every day, doing your sports no matter, calling your friends and spending time with your family. The same applies for your business environment, keep smiling, keep returning your calls, keep coaching your team and doing your meetings, always build your schedule and stick to it.
5. Go for it
Sometimes we give so much thought upon acting, that we don't feel confortable with decisions or actions we take. All it is needed is act on instincts, knowledge and preparation. Your mind has it, so why not use it? In golf, the longer you hold the club before a shot, the longer you stand still trying to settle your feet, position, the more you "think" about the shot, the worst it will be.
I have proved this to myself many times when you have a "pressure shot", for example, a first-tee shot early in the morning, where several groups of people are together watching (among course staff, other golfers in line, your own partners etc), no warmup and even sometimes with a couple of months after not playing. With all these conditions you have two choices: Scare yourself and panic by thinking all the odds against the shot, or just grab your club, stick to your routine with your objective in mind and swing it as you know it.
In the end, I leave you with this simple but powerful quote from Bobby Jones, so we can reflect on how many times when things need to get done in spite of .. our mind is what gets in the way.
Do you have other examples of lessons learned from activities that can be translated into different environments? Please share in the comments section below to discuss and have a good insight.
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