Embracing Uncertainty: The Power of Acceptance in Enhancing Your Golf Performance

Have you ever wondered why despite your best efforts, you can't seem to nail every golf shot? In this episode, we unpack a critical mental aspect of golf that may just be the key to your breakthrough - the power of acceptance. We're not talking about resignation or lack of effort. Rather, acceptance in golf is understanding and being okay with the unpredictable nature of the game. We all hit bad shots, but the real challenge is learning to accept this reality and not let it affect our performance.

We delve into the variables that can impact your gameplay, from unpredictable weather conditions to the condition of the course. We emphasize the importance of maintaining equanimity even when faced with bad luck, poor performance, or inconsistent days on the green. Also, discover how dealing with facts rather than opinions post-shot can be a game-changer. We talk about the destructive power of indulging in opinions about your performance and how it can lead to a self-destructive cycle. By embracing the experience rather than resisting it, you can create a non-threatening environment on the golf course, swing with more freedom, and ultimately, find more enjoyment in the game. Join us, and let's make every game a pleasure, not a pressure.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

If I could give any golfer a golfing gift in terms of the mental game, it would for me be the skill of acceptance, the ability to deal with, acknowledge, accept the incredible vagaries of outcomes that we get on a round of golf. Now it's very, very important to understand that acceptance isn't in any way resignation. Acceptance doesn't mean that you're not trying your best. It doesn't mean to say that you don't intend to hit really good shots. But what acceptance is is a fundamental ok-ness with the reality of the game. Because the reality of the game is I don't care how good you are as you listen to this program, you will hit bad shots, you will hit lots of bad shots. There's just too much variability, there's too much that can go on from the point of contact and the ball and club meet each other to separation for us to control those outcomes. The vagaries of weather, course conditions, all of those things that we've looked at. Underneath all of that, what underpins all of that is the ability to just accept the reality the ball went left, the ball went right, it went high, it went low, it stopped short, it went long, whatever it may be and to have, as I said, this equanimity, this ability to be ok with the inevitable bad luck, the bad bounces, all of those things that happen, your own performance, the variety of your own performance, and an acceptance that on each individual day, you're just not the same person. What felt great yesterday isn't going to feel good today. You felt like you could never miss the fairway and now you're spraying it all over the place and, rather than resisting all of that, is a willing acceptance to just deal with it as it is. One of the great tools in terms of acceptance is post shot. It is, for me, something that I've worked on with many tool players over the years, and that's what we call facts rather than opinions the idea that when you hit a goal shot, the fact is it went left, it went right, the club face was closed, the club face was open, you hit it a little bit too high, you hit it a little bit too low. Those are the facts. Those are the objective facts. There's physics and geometry at play during the impact conditions. Dealing with facts tends to keep emotions on a more even keel. What enhances or what causes issues is, instead of facts, that you're dealing opinions Now. Opinions are. It's not my day. Opinions are. I'm useless. My swing feels terrible. I've lost my game.

Speaker 1: 2:58

The more that we indulge in our opinion of what's going on in the golf course, the more that we'll get drawn into the rabbit hole of self-destruction. So I think the next time that you play, have a central key, a central theme around acceptance. You're going to do the best you possibly can. You aim to play as many good shots as possible. You aim to shoot as low a score as possible. But just go out there and observe we talked about this in a previous session just observe your levels of acceptance. Can you go out there and see every shot as it just is? That's another great phrase. It just is.

Speaker 1: 3:36

When you get a lie, it's not a bad lie, it's not a good lie, it just is.

Speaker 1: 3:40

The hole isn't a tough hole or an easy hole, it just is.

Speaker 1: 3:44

All these things can come together to create this wonderful frame of reference. Instead of resisting the experience, we embrace the experience of the game of golf. And the more that we embrace that experience, the golf course then shows up as a non-threatening environment. We are able to deal with whatever the game throws at us. We're not going to allow ourselves to be shattered from an ego perspective by a ball going offline. We are not going to allow what a golf ball goes to define our value as a human being and to play from a level of profound acceptance to me is the only way to ultimately swing with freedom, because many people are playing golf with the misappropriated view that if you can swing the club in a certain way you will get protected from outcomes, and that will never, ever happen. So the more that you can accept the chaos, the more you can develop acceptance, the more you'll get much, much closer to not only getting close to your own potential, but really genuinely enjoying and savouring every experience on the golf course.