The Internal Thermostat: Why You Keep Shooting the Same Score (And How to Finally Reset It)

You hit the ball better than ever. Your swing feels good. You are putting in the work. And yet you are still shooting the same scores you always shoot.

That is not a skill problem. That is your internal thermostat...the setting your brain established based on what it believes is normal for you. And until you change what your brain believes about who you are, that thermostat will keep pulling you back. Every single round.

Today Bo and Shannon go to the root cause of scoring plateaus and show you exactly how to break through using one of the most powerful documented stories in all of sports psychology and one of the most extraordinary transformations they have ever been part of.

Here is what you will hear in this episode:

— The Trevor Moawad SAT story: a student who received the wrong score, believed it, changed his behavior, and became one of the world's most successful magazine entrepreneurs, and what this means for the score ceiling currently on your game

— Why your mental thermostat is not set by your ability but by your identity, and why technique improvements alone will never move it

— The University of Washington Women's Golf Team: from a team score of 305 to 284 in one season, school records, and a player now on the LPGA Tour, and the exact identity exercise that unlocked all of it.

— The E plus R equals O framework and why your response to the bad shot matters infinitely more than the bad shot itself

— Why sometimes it is faster to act yourself into believing than it is to believe yourself into acting and what that looks like on the first tee

— The five-step thermostat reset exercise to do today

Bo and Shannon close with the spiritual foundation that sits underneath all of it  including Shannon's most direct statement yet about the unfair advantage that comes from walking in your identity in Christ.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What is the scoring range you keep landing in? Maybe it's eighty-eight to ninety-four, maybe it's seventy-eight to eighty-four, maybe it's seventy-two to seventy-eight. Whatever it is, do you notice something? It's like you never escape it. It's like good days bring you to the bottom of it, bad days push you to the top. But the range itself stays pretty remarkably consistent, round after round after round. That is not a skill problem. That is not a swing problem. That, my friends, is called your internal thermostat. A setting your brain established based on what it believes is normal for you. And until you change what your brain believes about who you are, and the thermostat will just keep pulling you back to that same range, no matter how many lessons you take, no matter how many range sessions you put in, how many balls you hit, no matter how many drivers and training aids that you buy, or courses or YouTube videos, you can fill in the blank. And today what we're gonna do is we're gonna show you how to get to the root of it and show you how to reset it. What if your best round of golf wasn't years away? What if you were just one round away? Welcome to the One Round Away podcast. Our mission is to help 100,000 golfers just like you shoot their new lifetime low round, not just once, consistently, just by becoming the kind of golfer who knows how to perform when it matters most. Hey, I'm Bo Watson.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

I'm Shannon Chesky, and a golfer who plays with freedom, who recovers from bad shots and even the good ones because of that emotional attachment to a hunt round is one of the fastest ways to sabotage it. A golfer who stops standing in their own way and starts trusting what is already in there.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Yeah, and what that is, guys, that's called caveman golf, sea target, seaball, hit ball. It's simple, it's instinctive, and it's free. Hey guys, just real quick shout out. Really important that we want you guys to know this. If you're like, this really resonates, I really want to go further. I want to see what it looks like to work with you guys. We've created an amazing opportunity called One Round Away Challenge that we're really excited about because last time we did a challenge like this in the past, we had 151 golfers go through it. 113 of them reported back. They dropped 5.1 strokes in 45 days, is what they reported back to us. So if you're like, hey, I would love to work with you guys, I would love to get my questions answered live. This is an amazing new opportunity that we're creating just for you. Just sign up for that. All you gotta do is go to Amazon Secrets.com slash one round away. And again, that link will be posted in the show notes for you. That being said, let's get back to the episode. In episode six, you guys got to see what John Norvell showed us, what happens when an everyday golfer is 70 years old, almost no fiscal practice time, he applies this system, he goes out, he took his scores from the mid eighties, upper eighties, on the verge of quitting the game, to averaging 75 in eight weeks, and then shortly after that, he shoots his lifetime low round of 71. And then it wasn't long after that that he shot his new lifetime low round of 68, and it all came because his thermostat was reset. Then in episode seven, we gave you guys the signal light, which is basically your GPS for your game, which is green, yellow, and red light states, show you how to become aware of them, and then also give you the protocol for each. In episode eight, we expanded on that. We showed you how to do the ball reset, which is basically the breathe with hard reset, your firm with the power talk phrase, your look back, and then your look forward. Today we're gonna go one level deeper. And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna address the cause of why your signalite keeps drifting in the same direction as in the same situations. So, for an example, today with a thermostat, we're gonna share one of the incredible stories that I think Shann and I have ever seen, more importantly, ever been a part of. We cannot wait to get in this because if you truly want to get to the next level in your game, finally break through that score ceiling that's apparently on your game right now, this is the fastest way to get you to that next level. So, what is the thermostat? I want you guys to picture this. You know, just like your home, you have a thermostat that you may have it set to 72 degrees. You know, it's pretty simple. If it's hot outside, the air conditioning comes on, and then it brings it back down to 72. Let's say if it's really cold outside, well, guess what? Thermostat kicks the heat on and then brings your temperature back to 72 degrees. And that's because that's what your thermostat is set to. It's a setting that literally overrides everything else. Now, your brain does exactly the same thing when it comes to regulating your golf scores. You know, over months and years of playing, I mean, how many times have you guys experienced this? And I have so many conversations daily with golfers in our community where they have told me, you know, they spent so many hours practicing and so much time playing. It's like no matter what they do, they're still shooting the same scores. Just yesterday I had a conversation with a very up-and-coming talented junior golfer, and he told me that, you know, here recently, he's hitting the ball better, okay, hitting the ball better right now than what he was doing last summer, and yet last summer he was scoring better than what he's currently shooting right now in this game. If you don't fix this part of the game, your internal thermostat, it's like no matter what you do, all the time that you put in, you're always going to find a way to end up in the exact same scoring range every time you go out. And this is why, like when you give you some examples here, you know, let's say you go out and you're you're playing pretty good, and you're let's say your thermostat typically is somewhere between 81 and 87. And it's interesting what happens if you're going out and you're 200 through the first seven, eight holes, and your thermostat is at 82 to 87 range, it's like your brain starts getting uncomfortable, like you start feeling emotionally different, right? It doesn't feel normal, and it's like, wow, or maybe you have the thought that comes in, and you're like, dang, today I'm playing really good. Like this could be the day, right? And then you make the turn to the back nine, and we talked about this in the last episode, and it isn't interesting. Within the next you know, couple holes, you triple bogey one of them, and then it creates the domino effect. You go double bogey, double, and before you know it, instead of you know shooting something that's like in the low 70s, you know, when you turn the front nine two under, you go to the back nine and you shoot like 48, and it's like boom, right there. You're back to where you always tend to shoot your range. And so that's the internal thermostat. And this is what we're gonna finally address and get you to break that. And before we do, Shannon, you want to add to that?

SPEAKER_01 6:32

I mean, here's the thing. This is the part that most golfers never hear, is because it's uncomfortable to actually say, is that your mental thermostat is not set by your ability, but it is set by your identity and what it is and your subconscious belief in yourself that you've sewed over and over and over again. For example, if you're shooting two birdies, three birdies, four birdies, and all of a sudden you're like, man, I'm attached to a good round. But then subconsciously, you're you're waiting for something bad to happen. That is set on what you believe about who you are as a golfer. And because most golfers never intentionally work on your identity, they never challenge the story that you've been telling yourself over and over again and the scores that you're actually capable of. The thermostat never moves, even when your technique improves, you know, just like what Bo's talking about with the junior golfer, you know, he's striking the ball extremely well, but yet that thermostat never moves. But the technique improves even when the physical practice increases, because deep down you still believe that you're an 87 shooter, for example, and the brain will always find a way to confirm what it believes the thermostat reset is an identity reset. So we're gonna teach you how to reset your thermostat and walk into true identity.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Absolutely. And so, guys, what we're gonna do is we're gonna share a quick story. This is actually a story we share in our book, in the Zone Secrets. So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna share a clip with you. I want you to pay very, very close attention because once you get this piece, this will be one of the biggest things that will finally release you from this like score ceiling that's currently on your game. And here's the beautiful thing what you're about to learn, not only can it be applied to golf, but this is something that you can apply to life itself. So I want to share the story with you. So, what you're gonna hear is Trevor Muad and Tom Bailu. This is a podcast that they did, but there's a specific segment that we're gonna share, which is really, really powerful. So go ahead and listen into this.

SPEAKER_03 8:33

That ultimately, based upon you didn't let your past predict your future, you used your past was real, but I want to be do something different.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

So you say this is a really interesting part of what you say that the past isn't predictive. Correct. So talk to me more about that. I would say most people would say that the past is definitely predictive.

SPEAKER_03 8:52

Which is great, but they'd be wrong. So they would be wrong. And the simple fact of the matter is the past is real. Okay? So the only thing that makes it predictive is if my behavior stays the same. So I'll give you a great story. So we both grew up in Tacoma, and there used to be a thing called Toastmasters. I don't know if you remember Toastmasters, but Toastmasters was a local, regional, and a national speaking group for anybody that wanted to get better at speaking. My dad had gone to a Toastmasters early on and heard one of the most successful magazine entrepreneurs in the world speak. He comes back and tells me, I just had a chance to hear one of the most successful magazine entrepreneurs in the world uh speak. And he said, When are you taking your SAT? I said, I'm taking it next year. He said, Well, this guy was failing out of high school. He was struggling, he was raised by a single mom in the Midwest, but he promised his mother he would take a test called the SAT. So he takes the SAT in May his junior year, doesn't expect anything, gets his score back in June. Now the SAT, which I don't know how many your population know, but it's a standardized test with a math part and a verbal part. Both are scored out of 800 points. Well, this guy takes it, he's bombing, he's failing out of school, he doesn't expect anything as he's telling the story at Toastmasters. Well, he gets a 1480 out of 1600. So he's stunned. That would be for the smart people that listen to your podcast cognitive dissonance.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

I got a 900 on my essay, just to give people a framework. Right, and I got a 10. A 990, excuse me.

SPEAKER_03 10:14

And I got a 1010, right? I was just, hey, four tits. It was a miracle, right? And but it's a hard test, and it puts a variety of different things. So he gets the score, and his mother, doing what any mother would do knowing her kid, says, Did you cheat? She knows her son. And he said, I swear to God, I tried to cheat, but the way the numbers were and the scantrons and the bubbles, you couldn't cheat. So she says, You mean to tell me you really got that score? He said, Yeah, I got the score. So he's stunned, Tom. So as my dad's telling me the story, I'm like, okay. So he says, All right, so what he decides is because he realizes he's smart and he's going into his senior year, he says, I'm gonna go to class. Now he starts to go to class, he doesn't hang out with who he did when he didn't go to class. All right. Teachers see him in class and they said, Hey, maybe Franklin Pierce, maybe we missed the boat on this kid. So they start to treat him differently. Well, as the guy would tell the story, he graduates, goes to a community college, goes on to Wichita State, goes on to the Ivy League, and becomes this massively successful magazine entrepreneur. So I said, Okay, well, the guy was always smart, he just needed a standardized test to unlock it. My dad said, No, that's not the story. This is what I want you to understand. He said, 12 years after all this guy's success, he gets a letter in the mail from Princeton, New Jersey. Doesn't think anything about it. The next day his wife says you're gonna open it. He opens it. True story turns out the SAT board will periodically review their test taking procedures and the policies. The year he took the test, he was one of 13 people that sent the wrong SAT score. His actual score was a 740 out of 1600. And he said, People think my whole life changed when I got the 1480. But what happened? My whole life changed when I started acting like a 1480. And what does a 1480 do? He goes to class. Well, this is one of the first stories I would share when I had my opportunity at Alabama or Florida State or Georgia. A, your language is powerful, but number two, your behavior is way ahead of your success. And so many people let their feelings dictate what they do as opposed to throw your behavior out there. Russell Wilson's 5'10. He shouldn't be playing pro football, but he behaves like the best quarterback in the country, and he's done that since before he was at that level. And then his feelings and emotions and his skill caught up to that behavior. I think the lesson my dad was trying to teach me ultimately was in addition to my language, what I do, not how I feel about my past, is gonna determine who I am in the future. And that's what I think neutral thinking is. And I think neutral thinking isn't just thinking, I think it's behavior, and I think it's language. And so your behavior is what's gonna change you. But you also have to start by asking yourself, what do I want and why do I want it? Why don't I have it? What am I willing to do to get it?

SPEAKER_01 12:58

All right, so isn't that an amazing story? It's it he was given the wrong score, and he actually developed that 1480 lifestyle. And we're gonna show you how to develop that 1480 lifestyle. And here's what the research shows about what happened to the student in this situation. Their actual academic performance rises dramatically, not because of any external change, but because the internal identity has been shifted and their behaviors followed their identity. The wrong score, a lot, actually, the right performance in the magazine Entrepreneur's Light. And I want you to sit on that for one moment. Let that marinate for a second. Because this is not just a cute story. This is a documented psychological phenomenon that your brain will organize your behavior around your identity. What you believe you are is what you will produce, not because of talent, not because of effort alone, but because your nervous system will consistently execute what it believes to be true about you. We see this with many golfers like every single day. An 87 shooter who starts truly believing their identity level, that they are an 80-shooter. So then there's a behavior shift that takes place, a mindset shift that takes place, that they will start making different decisions on the course because of that. They will take different shots, they will produce and practice different things, they will carry themselves differently on the first T. They will recover from bad holes differently. The identity shifts first. The behaviors change because of it, and scores follow their behaviors. That is the thermostat reset. And it starts with the wrong SAT score, so to speak. Except this time you're going to give yourself intentionality and start changing your behavior and act different than the way you used to believe. Now you're believing it and you're acting it out.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Yeah, and so what we're going to do, I want to share just one of the absolute amazing stories that we got to be a part of a couple years back to show you like how this works out in real time in the game of golf. I want to share a story about the University of Washington women's golf team. To kind of give you a full picture of this, we were contacted by who's now retired, and uh in the Hall of Fame is Coach Mary Lou. They're at the University of Washington. They had won a national championship in 2016. But over the last like five years or so, before we went out there and worked with them, they had really been struggling as a program. And in the fall of 2023, it was really hard. They had a team average score of 305. What was weighing on them was the fact that the regional for that year was actually supposed to take place out in Washington State. And so here they were going to have the regional in their backyard, and yet the way that they were tracking, they were not going to be the host of it. So that was the big primary motivator behind why you know Coach Mary Lou reached out to us after hearing us on Mark Elleman's podcast. We talked and she invited us out, and we go out and fly out, spend two days with the team. To put this in perspective, you've got to understand that this is a team that's playing at that time in the Pac-12. This is the Who's Who of Women's Golf. So you got Stanford, you got USC, you got UCLA, you got Arizona State. I mean, these are programs that have produced a lot of LPGA tour winners over the years, like the Rosangs of the world, right? What's fascinating about this is that there was talent on this team already, but yet they were playing with like an inferior complex, so to speak. They were finishing last or second to last in a lot of the comfort tournaments. They were really struggling as a whole. We had to ultimately training. Then this part right here with the internal thermostat can be a game changer. One of the reasons why is because when we were there live with the girls, we asked every single one of them, what's your why? Why do you play this game? Every single one of them said, Hey, I want to play on the LPGA tour. And we're like, awesome, that's great. Because once we knew that, it unlocked like what we were going to do next. And so, Shannon, you want to take part of what we did next with them.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

So, yeah, here's what we did. This is the SAT story applied in real time. We gave every single player on the team a resume, not their current resume, but like their future resume. You've been named AL LPGA Rookie of the Year, and you've won five times on the LPGA tour, and you've won a major championship. Now, let that sink in with that kind of resume. Now, none of them, that was their actual resume. We said, all right, let's fast forward, let's jump ahead seven years from now, and this is what it looks like. You've accomplished that. LPGA rookie of the year, five times LPGA tour winner, won major championships. Now let that sink in. Now think about that for a second of that resume. Do you think that would change your behavior? And so then what happened was we asked them the question that the SAT story is actually built on. Can you prove that this is not true about you? They said no. Because they couldn't. None of them could prove certainly that this version of their future self was impossible. The same approach as the student who received the wrong SAT score, and they simply decided to believe it and then behaved it, and then they actually developed that 1480 lifestyle, and they embraced this, not just the 1480 lifestyle, but they embraced the entire system and went all in on everything, went all in on their future behavior of what their lifestyle of an LPGA player was going to be like, and them carrying it back to their present self and then their identity shifted.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

Yeah, I mean, um what's so amazing about this is the fact that when they watched the SAT story, just like you just listened to that SAT story, right? The kid, you have to understand he was wrongly sent an SAT score of 1480. But the reality, all right, I need you to understand this. The reality was he was still a 740 student. That was the actual score that he actually got on that test. But because he was wrongly sent the score of 1480, he believed and behaved in that moment and then the next few weeks and the months to come like a 1480 student. And then you saw what happened. He ended up becoming one of the world's leading successful magazine entrepreneurs in the world. And what's fascinating about this is what Shannon just shared is what we walked every single one of those girls through that exercise of you're now an LPGA major champion, you have won rookie of the year, you've won five times on the LPGA tour, and this is your resume. And when they really, really sat there and just kind of like thought about it and meditated on it, and then just really and like visualized it, right, and all the feelings that came around it, what was so fascinating is then we took that future player and we said, okay, I want you to bring that player back to the present moment. Okay. And I said, like, now what does your daily routine look like? How are you gonna approach practice? How are you gonna approach a tournament round? How are you gonna carry yourself on the first T when you're next to the Stanford and the USC and Arizona State players? Because in the past, what they had told us in the beginning of our training was that they were almost like kind of scared to play with the number one and the number two player at some of these other schools. It was so cool, it was tangible. You could see it on their faces. We saw it in the beginning, but then when we walked them through this exercise, like you could see the change in their face, like in terms of their behavior, their body language, and how they like sat upright. Because at that point we asked them, like, how are you gonna carry yourself when you're paired next week with the number one player from Stanford? And I'll never forget looking at two of the players and they're like, I don't care. Like, yes, yes, that's the response. Because like the reality is, and what we showed with them was that a lot of these girls that are like the who's who right now in the Pac-12, a lot of these girls, and I'm not gonna share the names on this podcast just out of respect, but I shared numerous examples of like these girls that were amazing college players, but yet they got to the upson tour, and they never got past the upson tour. We were like, Look, but your resume, you've won. And we said, This is your resume. And so like now we bring that player back from the future to the present moment, and now you're paired with this number one player at Stanford in Arizona State. The two girls we were looking at, they're like, I don't care. And one of them's like, Well, they got beat me. And it's a totally different mindset, totally different shift. And it's like now the pressure's off because they already knew who they are, and all They're doing just like the SAT kid is now they're walking out the behaviors that match up with what an LPGA major champion would do, and do that in the present moment in terms of who they're playing with, how they react to bad shots, you know, good and bad shots, and maybe when bad they have bad holes, and maybe if they have bad rounds, it doesn't matter. They're not now defining their worth or their performance as determining who they are. It's like they already know who they are. They're just now walking it out.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

Absolutely. And one of the things that we had to bring to them is the best team doesn't always win. The best player doesn't always win. It's the best team or the best player that actually plays the best that wins, right? And then with that being said, you know, at the same time, you know, would they think twice about backing off a shot? Because if they were in the LPGA, there's a lot more consequences in the shine, obviously, when it comes to money. So then they actually brought that back into, and they didn't think twice about doing things, their behavior just became an autopilot, and the results were not just gradual, they were almost immediately, and then it compounded because after one person started believing it, and another one started believing it, and then all of a sudden they actually grew with the same mindset. And through the spring season, after we began working with them, their team score came down to an adjusted 284. That is 20 strokes improvement on a team scoring average at Division I at the time it was Pac-12. They sent multiple school records throughout the spring. They sent the third lowest single round score in the Pac-12 championship in the history of it. They earned the right to host the own regional, which they could have not done if they had continued at the level that they were playing during that fall. They actually had a mindset shift and identity shift. And one of their players now from the team is now on the LPGA tour. So let that sink in. If you are a school coach for a university or a high school, what would a 20-stroke difference mean for your school? And then you're breaking school records, you're breaking conference milestones just like they did, and then walking in the LPGA or the PGA tour identity, all tracing back just the two days of training that we did on our full system, and one identity exercise that was built in, and they received the wrong SAT store. Except did they really receive it? Because they couldn't prove it, right? That's the difference. They couldn't prove it, and they believed it as they were walking it out, and their behaviors followed.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Yeah, and what was so amazing about all that was just again, Shannon just briefly stated it, but I just need to like really emphasize this because what was so cool, we saw within a month and a half after doing our training, you know, two of the players won individual titles. One of the coolest stories was the number seven player on the team from the fall season with her stroke scoring average. When she went through our training within a few weeks, she became the number one player on the team through qualifying, and then even in the first couple events in the spring season, then that obviously got the attention of several of her teammates. Just like Shannon said, it became a compounded effect, and it was so cool to watch. And it's so sweet to sit here and actually see the realization of her training. And what I mean by that, one of the players, well, we can say her name, it was Camille Boyd. And I'll remember like out of coming out of the fall season, she was like on the verge of almost like quitting the game. It was because she just wasn't having fun with the game, like she almost lost her passion for it. When we shared all this stuff with her, it's so cool to sit here and now look and see her on the LPGA tour, and not only on the LPG tour, but also making her first cut in one of the most recent LPG tour events. And so it's just so cool to see how what we're saying to you guys right now, like it is not just for tour players, this is something that is great for any level of player. You don't have to be a college golfer with tour aspirations for this to work. The principle here, it can work if your goal is to break 90 for the first time, maybe like win your club championship, or you want to finally shoot your age. Like the question is the same. Like, what version of yourself as a golfer do you want to become? Not the version you think is realistic based on where you are right now. Let me rephrase that. Not the version you think is realistic based on where you are right now, not the version that you think you deserve, the version that you actually want. Because if we are going to be honest, if we go back to that moment when we asked the girls, they kind of just said casually, like LPGA tour, but you could look across the room and they didn't really believe it. But once we played the SAT story video, the ball got rolling, so to speak. And again, I just want to keep going on this because maybe for you that want to be a five handicap, maybe it's breaking to 80 consistently, maybe it's like winning your flight at your member. Yes, maybe it's shooting your age before you turn 75, like whatever it is, like I want you right now, like write it down. That's your resume. You know, that can be a year from now, three years from now, whatever. But what I need you to do right now is ask yourself, okay, whatever you wrote down, can you prove with certainty that it's impossible? Let that sink in. Because if you guys remember from episode six, John Norvell could not prove it was impossible for him to average 75 at 70 years old, when at the realistic time that when we first started working with him, he was in the mid-upper eighties, he could not prove it was impossible for him to shoot 68 at 71 years old. But that's what he did. And then the University of Washington players couldn't prove that it was impossible for them to become an LPGA player, and neither can you. Alright.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

So Shannon, you got anything you want to add on that? This is true to every client that we've ever worked with who has had any kind of major breakthrough. The breakthrough never looked like what they expected. They expected it to happen at the range. Well, it didn't look like that. They expected it to happen when their swing finally clicked. It didn't happen that way. They expected that it happened after a few years of grinding, it didn't happen that way. It all comes down to the mental aspect of believing who they are, their identity, but also embracing fully in the system that we teach with psycho neuromuscular training. It happened when they changed what they believed about themselves. Like what Bo mentioned about John Norval, he changed what his belief was. The University of the Washington players, they changed what they believed. Uh, I believe now that my best golf is ahead of me. That is that thermostat resetting that subconsciously is being smutched, so to speak. So then their core belief is that they can be that person. They're walking in that identity, and their identity is shifted. And when it shifts, the scores follow.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

Yeah, and if you guys remember, one of the biggest things that was so profound in that SAT story is that your past does not predict your future. Your behavior and belief does. And this is what is so critical because one of the players, again, I want to bring her back up, you know, the player that was a number seven on the team and then became number one, she went all in on believing that she was an LPGA champion. And so every situation, and what's so cool, you could see it in her journaling, how she encountered different situations. Because like what was fascinating is her biggest nemesis in the past used to be she would sky her drive, and occasionally she would hit one or two of these around. Like D1 level, pack 12. That's pretty embarrassing, right? And so it would be very demoralizing for her, like when this would occur. But here's what's crazy did she continue hitting those like sky hits on her drives? Yes. But her response changed. What she did was she didn't allow it to affect her next shot. Now, in the past, her old self, it would be demoralizing. It would take her two or three holes to get over that, and by that time the damage has already been done. And what was so neat is I remember reading some of her journal entries where she wrote about this one particular hole. She skied it up in in the air, only went about 130 yards. She's now like 230 or 240 or something like that, and so she has to hit three wood for a second shot. Kind of embarrassing. But yet she hits it just to the edge of the green and she chips up to like two feet, and then she taps that in for a par. But here's the kicker in her journal entry. You know what she said after she hit the sky drive? She said, I'm an LPGA champion. Next shot. That was the difference. We love this phrase. It's event plus response equals outcome mentality. E plus R equals O, right? And so she had an event. She chose the right response with the lens of what would an LPJ champion do in this situation? How would they behave to this scenario or situation? Because the pressure was off and because she behaved with the right response that is in alignment with an LPJ champion, she was then able to overcome that adversity and then actually make a pretty good score. And that right there is the game changer. The difference is it's all about your response, but more importantly, your identity that governs that response. And so that was the breakthrough. And the thing that really unlocked everything for this team, and it's going to do the same for you, is that if we bring this back to like your level, for an example, let's say you right now currently shoot in a mid-80s, and you want to get to scratch golf, and you've had the occasional few rounds here and there where maybe you've shot 76 or you shot 78, and you know you have it in there, but you just for whatever reason always still end up in the mid-80s. Well, here's the thing: it's like when you go out and you play and you're finding yourself maybe one under through the first seven holes, like you're walking out and you're like, oh man, like, oh man, I'm playing really good today. Like, maybe I can do it today. And the problem is that initial thought, and we say, hey, a year from now, your resume is that your scoring average is like a 73, but your index is like a 1.2, you won your club championship, and we say that's your resume a year from now, let that sink in, that's what you're going to accomplish. And then we bring you back to the present moment. Now watch this. You're one under through seven holes. What's your response? Normal. Bingo. Because if you in your future self are a 1.2 index and your scoring average is 73, what do you think that means? It means you've shot numerous rounds in probably the high 60s before, right? And so when you're one under through seven, it's not like a weird feeling anymore. It's like a walk in a park. Just like right now, if you are that mid-80s golfer, and let's say you're 9-10 over after 11 holes, like it doesn't feel weird. It feels normal. And this is the power of the internal thermostat in doing the reset, which we're going to cover next. Because when you start behaving like your future identity now, it's like you've been there so many times that it feels normal. And like Shannon just shared, as you guys heard him, he said, it's normal. That's one of the power talk phrases that you can constantly say to yourself to remind yourself, hey, this is a new identity, this is what's expected, here's our new behaviors, and now we're gonna walk in it.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

Absolutely. I want to share something too, Bo, with that, because sometimes belief is not enough. And you're like, what in the world do you mean by belief is not enough? Sometimes it's faster to act yourself into believing than it is for you to believe yourself and actory. Just carry your uh yourself differently. What how do you approach the first T? You have that mindset, you have that behavior that's there. You walk in those behaviors, you walk with big body language because what happens with big body language, it actually produces testosterone. But yet, if you start walking up to the T, for example, this is behavior, or what I'm referring to, and you got slumped shoulders and small body language, it's actually releasing cortisol in your body, which is the stress hormone, and you're not going to believe that. That's why you say we act different than how you feel, because the behaviors will follow, the scores will follow. Just like what John Norville believed, he believed his best golf was yet to come. And the same thing with the University of Washington, they believed that they were the future LPGA major champions. The belief may not have set in, but they started acting that way no matter how they felt. They may have a double bogey, but they're still acting and carrying themselves like the LPGA or the PGA champions. That's the difference. And because of that, they fully believe that not just the best team doesn't always win or the best player always wins. They believe, number one, that name is just a name. The best player in the world, that's just a name. They have to beat them first, and the same foremost with you. They played like they act like it, and now they have the school records to prove it, and they have an LPG-8 tour player that proves it. You know what? Now it's your turn to prove it.

SPEAKER_00 36:18

Amen. So, here's your exercise, and this is what we want you to do today, not eventually, today. All right, step one, we need you to write down your current scoring thermostat. What range have you been stuck in? Like, not what you want it to be, like what it currently is. Like, write that down. Like, what is that range? And then step two, what we want you to do is write down your new identity. Like, what's the golfer that you want to become? Like, we want you to be very specific. Like, is it five handicap? Is it breaking 80 consistently? Is it winning your club championship? Is it qualifying for the mid-am? Is it qualifying for the US am? Is it qualifying for the US senior am? Is it to earn your tour card? Like, whatever it is, write down your new resume, present tense. Not I want to become, it's I am. And then step three, I need you to ask the question can you prove with certainty that this is not possible for you? If the honest answer is no, and for almost every golfer it will be, then give yourself the same permission that the student got from the wrong SAT score. The belief that this is who you are, the 1480 lifestyle. Step four I want you to identify three behaviors that that golfer does your future self that you're not currently doing. Not 15 things, just three by size. All right, maybe it's 10 minutes of daily mental reps doing psychomescu training, right? You know, that's going to be one of the biggest separators. That's a good behavior to go practice. Maybe it's a pre-round visualization, maybe it's staying in your release routine after every bad shot instead of carrying it to the next hole, actually being consistent with the release. Maybe it's actually implementing the ball reset in the appropriate situations that we talked about in the last episode. Like, whatever those behaviors are, like start doing them now. All right. And then step five, notice the internal thermostat over the next four rounds that you go out and play. Like notice when it starts to fight back. Notice when you're on pace for your best round and the tightening begins. You know, that is the thermostat defending its old setting. Here's the amazing thing with the tools that we've given you, with the signal lights and the ball reset, you know exactly what it is. And then more importantly, you now have the tools to actually start managing and fighting back, more importantly, walking in that new identity. Just like that one player who was number seven on the team. Like if she would have kept doing what she would have done, like she would have never been able to accomplish some of the amazing things that she did. Like when she went into the Pac-12 championship, she was number one on the team at the Pac-12 championships for her team. And none of that would have been possible had she not walked out this identity. And so this is the thing you may have to constantly reaffirm to yourself, hey, this is my fill-in-a-blink new self, right? Whatever it is that you wrote down as far as your future resume. Shannon, you want to share anything else on that before we move into the spiritual aspect of this?

SPEAKER_01 39:13

This can be a game changer just in your game, but not just with your thermostat, the being all in, like the young lady was that was ranked seventh on the team. It wasn't just her identity shift. She embraced everything that we shared with this system. Because of that, she became a leader on her team. Then that's when the other players started following what she was doing. Because she stood out and because she was all in on this, it literally shifted her game. And obviously they noticed the jump and they're like, Well, I don't want her to beat me. And then they started following the same stuff. So again, take this, you know, and and embrace the things that we've been teaching and the changes that you're making and reaching out, contacting us.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

Yeah, and so we want to close with something that I believe is foundational to everything that Shannon and I believe about this work. Like, look, we teach the thermostat, we teach SAT story, we teach identity reset, and all that is real, and all of it works at the level of sports psychology and like neuroscience. But Shannon, I believe there's something deeper underneath it, and it's this you were created with a purpose that's greater than your current performance, greater than your current scores, greater than what your fear and your self-doubt have told you is possible. The Bible says we were made in the image of God, and that is the most extraordinary identity statement ever written. And when Shannon gave those University of Washington players a resume that said every LPJ major champion, what he was really saying is this, you already have inside of you everything required to become the golfer that you are meant to be. The question is only whether you will believe it. Proverbs 23 7 says, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. What you believe about yourself at the identity level is what you will produce. So we are inviting you right now to think bigger about yourself, not because of arrogance, but because of what you were made for, the thermostat that your fear set, that can be reset by the identity that you were designed to carry.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

Yeah, and regardless of where you are spiritually, the principles are true. Here's the thing: don't disregard the stuff that we've shared because these principles are absolute truth. And it's also back by science. What you believe about yourself shapes what you do, and what you do shapes what you produce. Sometimes, again, like I mentioned before, sometimes it's faster to act yourself into believing than it isn't believing yourself and acting. So act different than how you feel, and the behaviors will follow, the scores will follow, just like with what John Norville and his best golf was ahead of him. And just like with the University of Washington, players believe they were their future identity. They they played like it. And the beautiful thing is, you know, the school records prove it. The LPGA Camille Boyd has proved it. And now it's your turn again to prove it and to walk in this thing into who you are and what you were created to be and walk in our identity in Christ. Because here's the thing: the devil doesn't care if you're on a golf course or if you're in your your car driving home, you know, he's come to steal, kill, and destroy. He's wanting to destroy you. And he wants you to not even understand your identity in Christ and who you are with him, walking as it says in in the word of God, that you are more than a conqueror. No weapon formed against you will prosper. If God be for me, who can be against me? Like the verse that I mentioned before, no weapon formed against will prosper. There's going to be weapons formed, but it's not going to prosper. I'm not going to let it get me down because I understand who I am in Christ. And because of that, it's it's no longer that I live, but it's Him that lives in me, and I'm walking in my identity in Christ. And therefore, you know, as Christians, in a sense, we have, I'll be honest, I'm gonna say it, we have an unfair advantage. Why? Because we have the helper, we have the Holy Spirit that is come and is moving us to walking in a greater identity and walking in that, being that more than a conqueror identity, so to speak. And because of that, because God not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and love and soundwabelled mind. Well, see, here's the thing. He's not giving us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, right? We have to believe that and walk in that a spirit of love. We have to walk in love and look at other people with the eyesight of love and look in them created value. That's the game changer when it comes to walking in our identity in Christ.

SPEAKER_00 43:37

Then who can be against us, right? And so when you walk in that ultimate identity, I mean, my goodness, it it puts a whole new meaning on life and then how you see everything through those lens, and then even playing this amazing sport we call golf. And it just allows you to go out there and just play with freedom. That's what every golfer desires to play with is that really. Real unrestricting freedom every time you step it up and tee it up and go play. So guys, I hope you really enjoyed this episode on the internal thermostat and then walking in your future identity now. Go out and behave like that 1480 lifestyle. If you guys are needing more resources from us, we have some amazing stuff for you. It'll be posted in the show notes. If you have yet to get our book, if you're in the US, you can get a free signed copy from Shannon and myself. We just go to Indazonesecrets.com. Or if you're outside the US and you're international, don't worry, you can go through Amazon and get our book there. We also have some incredible free resources such as the Mental Game Score Killer. That's a free assessment you can go take Indazonesecrets.com slash assessment. And what that will do will provide you a free custom blueprint on how to go attack that and keep those doubles and triples off the scorecard. And then last thing is if you have resonated with anything that we teach or shared here, as well as the previous episodes, and you would like to see what it looks like to work with us more closely, we have several options. All you need to do is just go to end zone secrets.com slash free call and we can jump on a call, do a deep dive into the game, and more importantly, get you the help that you need and get you to your goals much faster. So if that's of interest, go do that. Go out there, be a caveman golfer this week. And remember, you're just one round away.