- Prelude
- Everybody has reoccurring questions in their lives and their games. What are the answers? Is it
technique, is it presence, are other forces working there? These questions are usually inspired from within,
they point to the patterns in life that steer the course of our lives, and they influence the aspects of life that
lead to being productive and happy. Finding our way in life, staying the course of productivity and attaining
happiness can be facilitated by a process of self-observation. This means noticing your behavior patterns in
preparation, action, and response, and recognizing which patterns serve your innate sense to be
productive. It also involves recognizing which patterns are counter productive and requires a choice of
recommitting to the productive way.
The answers can be found by awakening your genuine nature. Most non-productive behavior is born
from being conditioned to act contrary to your genuine self. Your genuine self would never willingly choose
to be non-productive. Your genuine self believes in your dreams, your potential, and the true possibilities
that life has to offer.
The process starts with being true to yourself, is grounded in an open mind-set, is facilitated by
awareness, and is achieved through unconditional commitment. This means your thoughts, attitudes,
actions, behavior must be genuine. Indeed your whole way of conducting yourself must be genuine.
Expressing this genuine posture requires you to free your mind from its conditioned state. This will give you
the freedom to express yourself in a responsive manner that reflects your true nature.
There exists an original “you,” an authentic “you,” that is dying to be reborn and express itself openly,
freely, and genuinely. You simply need to reacquaint yourself with “YOURSELF.” You expressed it as a
child, you became conditioned to hide it, and you can re-awaken yourself to express it again.
How do we reacquaint ourselves with the youthful attitude of being genuine? The first step is to make
the choice. Recognize that it is necessary if you want to be happy and productive. Create an unwavering
desire to be yourself, as your true self. Commit to being the person you were born to be, and let loose this
masked identity you’ve come to call yourself, the grown-up self.
People often believe that maturing or growing up means giving up your genuine attitude. I believe
maturing is growing wiser without ever giving up your genuine disposition. However, since it’s likely you have
acquired a mask of social acceptance, you may need to recommit to your genuine nature by planting the
seeds of choice to be yourself. Plant the seeds through choice, nurture them thru daily reminders, express
them in your actions, reaffirm them in your responses, and watch them grow as you stay committed to the
process. Your genuine self will shine thru, and you will enjoy the fruits of genuine growth. You simply need
to make the choice to see it that way, and reinvent yourself in the moment. Every moment of life provides you
an opportunity to reinvent yourself. You simply need to make the choice to imagine another version of how
you want to be. Then commit to acting it out.
A truly believable actor is the role he is playing. Actors absorb themselves into the role, and act the part
so committedly that they truly are the role they are playing. They are so the part that they convince
everyone else that they are the part. Thus, they are the person they have invented themselves to be in the
moment. Next week they’ll be someone else while acting out a new role. You can be someone else too.
The process of reinventing yourself will be cyclical. You imagine, react, redefine, re-imagine, react,
rediscover, and continue the process until you’ve found a way to be at peace with your present reality.
Whether actress or individual who desires to reinvent herself, she needs to absorb herself into the role and
act the part. You need to create the image in the likeness of your original self and commit to being that
person instead of the one society wants you to be. Make your way of acting it out so convincing that
everyone in your presence knows you are not acting. They know you are being yourself. When your
choices, your commitments, your actions, and responses are so convincing that you believe it at the deepest
levels of your being, then you will truly be that person, your genuine self.
Answering life’s questions also involves the way you perceive your future. How do you imagine your
future? Will it look different than your present reality? What needs to happen so that your present reality
will be transformed to your ideal state of being alive? Inside we all know there is a better life for us. Inside
we all know we are better golfers. In many ways we even know what we need to do, but we do not commit to
the needs. For example, everyone knows it is beneficial to eat healthy and exercise. We all know we would
live longer healthier lives if we did, and it is not so hard to live more healthy lives.
Most people simply choose not to live a more healthy life. They choose not to because it is easier to
keep doing what they are doing then it is to change. So we make excuses for our choices. We say it’s too
hard or we don’t have the time for it. Similarly all golfers know they need to swing relaxed and smooth. But,
how many golfers actually practice swinging relaxed and smooth? What exercises are available to them? All
golfers know as well that they need good timing, but do they find a way of practicing good timing? Usually
not. Golfers also come to realize that golf is a game of focus. Yet, they commit more time trying to find out
how to get more power in their swings than they do learning good focus habits.
Most golfers would improve dramatically if they spent more time finding their rhythm, their timing, and their
focus. However, most golfers choose to believe that their technique is more important. They commit to the
belief so strongly that they believe it is real. They begin to make excuses about their game so that they can
continue buying into the story. Sure the story sounds good. It may even be a great story. However, in the
end it is just a story that they’ve bought into. Stop buying into it, and start focusing on what really matters.
Accepting the story requires a filtering process. Filtering happens in the reception area of your mind.
Already accepted beliefs set up the parameters for how you view life and the thoughts that continue to enter
the mind’s reception area. The manner in which you are willing to accept and filter the incoming thoughts,
ideas, or images will determine how productive and genuine you are in your actions. Confine your filters to a
narrow vision of life and you restrict your options. Open the filters to a world of infinite possibilities and your
way of being will continually provide opportunity.
Filtering is a tricky process because the filters can obscure reality and narrow the opportunities presented
to us. When the filters obscure the reality of the situation, all you see is the perceived reality, the filtered
reality. Chances are you won’t realize that your perceptions are simply your version of reality.
If you choose a filter that leads you to see life’s happenings in either a positive or negative way, then the
filter is the positive or negative influence, not your life. Life simply is what it is, but our filters make life seem
positive some times, negative some times, and indifferent other times.
If your filtering process persists, realize that the manner in which you accept the filtering process is a
choice. You can choose to discard filtered perceptions that prove to be non-productive, and you can
choose to stay committed to the more productive perceptions. In either case, monitoring these filtered
perceptions can be tricky. It is easy to buy into the filtered perceptions, and you can believe in the
perceptions so much that they become your reality, a reality that seems to be inescapable.
You can shield yourself from such experiences by committing to the vision of being genuine in your
conduct, and you can become more productive by committing to the vision that you are a winner. Act like a
champion, no matter how you feel, and you will be a champion. You can imagine how you would act if you
were the master of your intentions, then act in that manner. Better yet, strive to be open and aware,
because awareness results in open understanding that illuminates life’s true posture. This type of
commitment will certainly reduce the limitations you impose upon yourself through non-productive filtering. It
will also guide you a step closer to expressing your genuine way of being.
It may also be of value to remember the youthful attitude you had before you grew-up. Do you remember
the curiosity of your childhood, do you remember having the urge to discover new ways of expressing
yourself? When did you stop seeing yourself as a venturer, a discoverer? When did you start acting like an
adult with a prescribed station in life? When did you start believing that maturity consisted of giving up your
genuine nature? When did you start buying into the belief that you know everything?
Maybe it’s time to realize that you can mature without growing up. You can become an adult without
giving up your youthful curiosity. You can be responsible while maintaining a youthful perspective of life.
Maybe it’s time to entertain the possibility of cutting loose the image of being an adult, of being grown up, of
being in control, and of knowing all the answers.
Why not consider the perspective that life has so much more to offer, that there are unlimited lessons to
learn in life? Why not re-invent yourself in the image of your genuine nature? Why not continue to use the
divine gift of authentic living bestowed upon you at birth? A simple fact of life is the one person you need to
live with is yourself. So, you’d better conduct yourself in the image of someone you can be at peace with.
You’d best act like someone you’d like to spend the rest of your life with. For you’ll never be able to free
yourself from yourself. And I believe the best way of being this person is by living authentically, by being
your genuine self.
are dependent upon how much conviction you back them up with. Thus, a passing or fleeting thought does not carry with it much attraction. However, a reoccurring thought receives so much attention that it gathers greater conviction each time it revisits your consciousness. The result? It attracts what it entertains. Therefore, if your habitual thoughts entertain positive story-lines, you attract more positive influences into your life. If your habitual thoughts entertain more negative story-lines, you attract more negative influences into your life. We all know it is better for us to spend most of our time looking at the positive side of our present situation. We all know we can do it, but we choose to accept all kinds of excuses for thinking negatively too often. We blame our struggles on the world, society, our parents, and the environment. We accept the absurd as a valid excuse. No matter how bad our present environmental situation, no matter how bad our present relationship with family, friends, co-workers, and acquaintances, we can always choose to give more attention to the positive side of the situation. We can always accept responsibility for influencing the situation in a positive manner. You never know, your positive influences may make the situation better. Where as, it is certain that a negative attitude won’t help. So, you can choose to look at the positive side of your situation, or you can choose to believe that, “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” It’s your choice. Let’s get back to those passing thoughts for a second. Although passing thoughts may not create much attraction, they can be disruptive to performance. Passing thoughts can create untimely distractions when your concern is focusing your attention on a given task. Therefore, fleeting thoughts may not attract the positive and negative influences in your life, but they do influence the quality of your performance. So, you do need to notice when fleeting thoughts pop in. And the best response to the fleeting thoughts is to simply wait them out. Be still and let them go by as swiftly as they popped in. Then reframe your focus so you can get back to the chosen game plan. The saying, “Beware of what you wish for” can also be interpreted, “Beware of what you habitually think!” Unlike what you simply wish for, your reoccurring thoughts create a force of attraction. This is not unlike how some dream analysts believe that reoccurring dreams have more meaning than one time passing dreams. Some believe reoccurring dreams are born from deep seeded beliefs, and that these beliefs are creating imbalance in your life. The reoccurring dreams are therefore a way for your subconscious mind to release the inner tension being created by the friction of conflicting beliefs. Your wishes often entertain concepts that you believe have little possibility, whereas your habitual thoughts pertain to your real world situations. This places them in the realm of true possibility. Of course your perception of the real world situation may not be as open and real as it could be, but because they entertain what you believe to be your true situation, they fall into the realm of what you believe to be real. And this gives them a much stronger sense of conviction. With such conviction, your resulting actions, reactions, attitudes, and behaviors carry with them a strong sense of attraction. Like modes of being are attracted to each other. You know, “Misery loves company,” and “The quarterback always ends up with the prom queen.” I wonder, what are your strongest convictions? Do they back up productive intentions, or do they give into non- productive tendencies? This brings me to the question, “What are your intentions, your true intentions?” People often say, I intended to do it. What they really meant was, I thought about doing the right thing, or I wanted to do the right thing, or I was trying to do the right thing. None of these carry with them the true intention of carrying out the task. Intending to do something goes beyond wishing, wanting, or even trying to do something. If you truly intend to do something, then you continue to back it up with conviction, you apply it through attentive awareness, and you continue the intent with a responsive assessment and recommitment. Just because you didn’t get it done the first time doesn’t mean you didn’t intend to do it. But if you give up on it before giving it your all, then you didn’ t truly intend to get it done. So, for your intentions to be true, you must display the fortitude to complete the intent. For your intentions to be true, you must apply the conviction necessary for the intended actions to become your present reality. For your intentions to be true, there can be no doubts as to the intended plan of action. For your intentions to be true, you must believe that the chosen course of action is within your present skill level, and you must believe it is the best course of action for you, right now. On the golf course, the chosen shot must feel like the shot you are most ready to play. If your choice fits your skills, the course situation, and the feel of the moment, then you are much more likely to truly intend the action, instead of just wish for it. For example, “The intended line of flight is only the intended line of flight if you are focusing on following-through down the line to your target.” Thinking of the desired results will not create the proper causes. As a matter of fact, thinking of the results often triggers a chain reaction of thoughts that distracts your attention away from the necessary focus. Thinking of the results invites doubt, anxiety, and self-interference into your present disposition. Once again, thinking of the results invites your attention away from what must be done to complete the job. To complete the job you need a performance-oriented action plan that uses a process-oriented focus. Lastly, this action plan must organize the causes that will bring about the desired results The causes are the actual skills, actions, images, attitudes, behavior, reactions, and thoughts that keep you on track with achieving your goals. The causes are the influences that keep you process-oriented. The causes are the beliefs that instill the necessary confidence. The causes are all the factors that add up to the result of accomplishing the desired effect – the goal. And if you want to accomplish the desired effect, then you need to know the true causes. Therefore, you must direct your thoughts toward the causes instead of the results. I believe most people know the results they would like to experience in life. The desired results are usually obvious. We want to make more money, we want to have more time to spend with our families, we want to be able to travel, we want nicer things, we want quality friendships, and we want to be better at what we do whether it be golf, work, or relationships. The trouble is, most people wish for these things, but never create a realistic action plan that has a real possibility of creating the results. If you do not have an action plan that has real possibility, then your wishes are just wishes. They never stop being wishes, so you keep fantasizing about them, “Yeah, someday I’ll be living the life.” But, if you never get started on a viable action plan, then you never take a step in the direction of achieving your goals. Eventually negative self-talk sets in, you begin to have doubts, and you develop the attitude that it will never happen. Talking to your fears and doubts fuels them. The more you keep them in your present state of mind, the more conviction they gather, and the more they distract you from the process of executing a viable action plan. So, if you want to attract the desired results into your life, then start magnetizing them through a process of thoughts that continually entertain the proper causes. Remember, your thoughts are like magnets, focus them on the causes and the effect will be the attraction of the desired results. |
- Chapter Three: Planting The Seeds
- So, I play my best golf when I am asking the right questions. But, how do I stay on top of asking the right
questions? I can’t help my negative reactions. I can’t stop my bad attitude from popping in every now and
then. Of course, you’ll get off track every now and then. We all do. This doesn’t make you a bad person, or
a bad golfer. There is no reason to feel guilty about wandering off course. Once you notice your mind-set
wandering, recommit by re-imagining how you want to live your life. Be proud of your ability to have fortitude.
Be proud of your choice to forge through trying times. Be proud of your commitment to reinventing yourself
once you noticed you’ve wandered off track.
To stay the course as efficiently as possible, you need to have a very clear image of what you want. You
need to be determined to maintain the vision, and you need to be committed to keep your thoughts on track
with your goals. You do this by cultivating your mind-set with nurturing thoughts.
Remember, the habitual thoughts you continually feed your mind are the diet of your mind-set. If you
constantly feed your mind negativity, your mind-set will become negative. If you feed your mind a healthy diet
of positive images, then you will become more positive. And with a more positive mind-set established, you’ll
be more likely to ask the right questions, at the right time.
You can also think of it this way. Your mind-set is a garden of vision and opportunity. If you plant the right
seeds, and nurture them with the right nutrients, then you will reap a bountiful harvest. However, it often takes
longer than we think it should for the effects of positive thinking to manifest in our daily lives. Too many
lingering thoughts and questions interfere with the process. It’s like planting seeds in rock filled soil. The
rocks will stop many of the seeds from growing.
The soil of your mind must be clear of all the negative influences and must be full of positive nutrients. The
more fertile the soil, the more accepting the soil is of the seeds being sown, and the better the chance for the
seeds to grow. Of course, once the soil is fertile, you can allow bad seeds to blow in with the wind and infest
the garden. When these bad seeds blow in and begin to sprout, you weed them out and get back to nurturing
the good ones. It’s our choice to attend to our minds’ garden with a green thumb. We can make the choice to
cultivate fertile soil, sow good seeds, and consciously nurture them while being attentive of weeding out the
bad sprouts as they pop up unexpectedly. If we do so, we will reap the benefits of a bountiful vision.
Phil Mickelson does nightly imagery practice to keep his mind-set fertile. He imagines making perfect
swings, playing perfect shots, he sees all his putts going in. I love this practice. I call it exercising the mind’s
eye, and I used it regularly to cultivate my mind-set while I was playing competitively. The more clearly I could
imagine exactly how I would play my rounds, the more I felt like I had already done it when I got to the course
the next day. As I played, I was able to ask the right questions, and stay true to my game plan. When I
executed poorly, I was able to get back to my game plan, because all I had to do was get back to the way I
imagined playing the next hole the night before. I could drop all the negative reactions and think in the
moment to reinvent my self in such a way to commit to the game plan I had already imagined myself
executing. It felt great to drop my negativity and reconnect to the image of how I knew I could play.
So, nurturing your mind-set is much like tending to the garden. You want to keep your mind-set fertile by
keeping it positive, then you want to plant thought seeds that sprout the vision of how you will reach your
goals. Finally, you cultivate the vision while weeding out the negative thoughts as they pop-up. Remember, it’
s your choice, you can tend to the crop with the perspective of nurturing the vision, or you can let bad seeds
set in and work their destruction.
patterns let you know how you filter your life experiences. As I wrote earlier, “If you believe you must pay your dues, then you will continue to pay your dues.” If you paint a picture of how you see your life, it will reflect your true beliefs about life. This is because your beliefs determine how much conviction you give your intentions, and your true intentions are the catalyst of your actions. In turn, the way you act, behave, and conduct your daily activities attract their likeness into your life. For example, if you play the victim you will become the victim. If you act as if your life is a tragedy, it will become a tragedy. If you believe you are a winner and act like a winner, then you’ll be a winner. The nature of life is that it is designed to provide us with the tools we need to experience our true intentions. Thus, our true intentions become our experiences. The key is to understand what your true intentions are, how you make them, and how you give them conviction. Life does provide us the tools we need to reach our dreams. However, we must use the tools to achieve our goals. You can have a garage full of tools and never use them. If you don’t use them, you’ll never build anything. We must use them to keep them in good working order, and we must take care of them so that they continue to work their magic for us. If we neglect the tools that life provides us, if we choose not to use them, then we will find it hard to be productive in life. The main tools that life provides us are awareness, attention, deduction, logic, commitment, integrity, honor, consciousness through perceptions, and our belief system. Your perceptions and your accepted beliefs need to be attended to very carefully, because they will influence how you use the rest of your tools. Your beliefs help create the filters that influence how you perceive the world. Therefore, your perceptions can filter the information that comes to you through awareness. Your perceptions can also distract your attention from your present concerns. Your perceptions can help justify your deductions, weaken or strengthen your commitments, and corrupt or support your level of integrity. Your perceptions can also help you clarify the information presented to you through awareness, they can clarify what you need to attend to while getting the job done, they can streamline your decisions making process, and they can solidify your commitments giving them more conviction. So, once again, if you don’t like the way life is playing out, change your beliefs about life. Imagine how you want to be, imagine what makes you happy, imagine how you would act if you were free to write your own script in life. Let go of the old story about how life is unfair, and about how people don’t care. Commit to being the type of person you want to be. Not in a result-oriented manner, but in the way you conduct yourself. Imagine how you must think, how you must act, and how you must respond to life’s situation so you will be the type of person you want to be. Take responsibility for committing to these ongoing perceptions of life. Let your perceptions plant the seeds of attraction, and let the world manifest the results you desire. Remember, life always does you the favor of letting you know your true intentions. So does your golf. If life is a reflection of your true intentions, you must change your intentions by changing your beliefs. Then your attitudes and actions will change. When your attitudes and actions change, your life will change. If you intend to be doubtful, nervous, and anxious your game will let you know through misguided actions. If you intend to be decisive, calm, and patient, then your game will reward you with good play. “But, I’d never intend to be doubtful, nervous, and anxious” people say. “Of course I want to be decisive, calm, and patient.” Your intentions are not what you want. Your intentions are the tendencies that lead you to either ask the right questions or the wrong questions. If you are inclined to ask the wrong questions on a regular basis, then your true intentions are not aligned with your desires. Are your true intentions the ones that set the desired experiences in motion, or do your true intentions carry with them hidden baggage that will detour your path to the desired experiences? Beware of your true intentions, they are the seeds of your experience. Be clear about what your true intentions are. Learn to weed out hidden intentions that inspire half-hearted efforts. Clarify your intentions so that there are no remaining inclinations that will undermine your desire to achieve your dreams. Cleanse your thought process of the beliefs that keep slowing you down. “I don’t have time to do it, I’m too busy, and it’s too hard to change” are bad excuses. Wake up, snap back to reality. You are the only one who can make life productive. If you have a hard time cleansing your perceptions of unwanted beliefs, you can try this exercise. I call it “Waking up.” As you awake in bed, lay still for a few minutes and focus on a relaxed pattern of breathing. This will help you quiet your mind and prepare it to view the world openly. Once your mind is clear, recall the bright full expression of life you had as a baby. Recall your original spirit. If you don’t remember it, then imagine the look in the eyes of a cheerful baby. Babies and infants express their authentic spirit freely, and you can see it in the look of their eyes. Breathe in the sense of original life with each incoming breath, and exhale any pretenses with each out going breath. Keep breathing this sense of life in and exhaling any pretenses out. Feel the life force fill your body. Recall this full sense of life as being your birth rite. With continued practice you’ll rediscover your genuine nature. All pure intentions come from this state of being. As you breathe the life force into your body, you are isolating your true essence, and your true essence is the cornerstone of your authentic disposition, the disposition bestowed upon you at birth. Once you have rediscovered this authentic disposition, you are ready to plant the seeds of intention that will bring forth the realization of your goals. Imagine your future, place it in the cradle of your authentic disposition. Let your disposition nurture your desires. Commit to this process until you are truly disposed to live your dreams. Then set new goals and reconnect to the process with the new goals in mind. Each day you can insert new intentions for the day and for your life. Tell your original self how you intend to be today. Ask your original self to be there with you as you go through the day. Ask your original self to give you guidance as you go through the day. Then, be willing to listen for the guidance. Remember, the guidance may come in the form of gut feelings, intuitions, or simple senses. This exercise can be used as the foundation of your dream building process. By using your breath to cleanse your perceptions and connect you to your original self, you are creating an excellent platform for experiencing your dreams. Additionally, by planting the seeds of productive intentions and nurturing them through your life force, you will change your perceptions and your attitudes to align them with your dreams. As you insert your intentions into your authentic disposition, take a true interest in them. Have true conviction with these intentions. You need to believe in them, otherwise they will not manifest themselves in your life. Accept the intentions as being your own, your true desires, your desired intentions. Remember, your true intentions are the cornerstones that create the foundation upon which you build your dreams. So, be very careful to align your intentions in such a way that they have the real possibility of guiding you to your dreams. The seeds of intention you plant must provide a real possibility in your life. Having real possibility is the key, because dreams can only be lived if they are actually possible. Feeling the dream’s true possibility is a necessity. Giving the dream a chance by committing to the initial steps that lay the foundation for the dream’s success is also a necessity. Furthermore, dreams that inspire you to act, to feel, to desire, to yearn for the substance of life will bring real possibility into your life. Dreams that have no real possibility of coming true are not dreams at all; they are merely fantasy. Everyone knows, at some basic level, the difference between fantasizing and real dreams. For example, dreaming of being a scratch golfer with no intent to practice, study, or commit to the games fundamental needs is not dreaming at all, it is pure fantasy, and fantasies have no real possibility. They are beyond this life’s reality. Dreams are the product of our genuine self, and they show us what is possible for us if we are diligent, attentive, inspired, committed, willing, and persistent. Thus, dreams can come true, while fantasies are always beyond this life’s real boundaries. So, if you dream of being a good golfer, then you need to intend to develop the fundamentals, you need to truly intend to practice, learn, internalize, and apply the necessary golfing skills. Otherwise you will never experience your dreams. So, be specific with your intentions, and be ready to stay committed. Your intentions should reflect the way you want to conduct yourself in the world. They should be concerned with your attitudes, the way you perceive life, and the way you need to act so that your successes lead you to your dreams. And this means you need to be very good at exercising the tools related to your powers of intention. To exercise your tools of intention, reflect upon what types of actions, conduct, preparations, reactions, beliefs, and thoughts will make you a more productive and happy person. Intend to be that way, and a wealth of results will show up in your life. Intend to be patient, attentive, and responsible in your reactions to life’s ongoing events, and you will attract the influences you need in your life to experience your dreams. Create intentions that continually build on each other, reinforcing your life’s foundation and developing a ladder of experiences that continually build toward your dreams. Work on implementing a ”planting your true intentions” process into your daily routine and you will begin to see your dreams manifest themselves in your life. Plant the image of your dreams in the presence of your authentic disposition, and continually nurture them. Never give up, never betray them, always be vigilant, and your dreams will find a way into your reality. In the end, it’s the level of your commitment that will determine the level of performance in your golf game and the level of dream realization in your life. |
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Copyright 2006 EA Tischler / New Horizons Golf Approach. All rights reserved.
beliefs, and attitudes that affect your perceptions of life. I take the view that I choose to accept what I believe. My inner beliefs set the parameters for how I perceive what’s happening in my world, which in turn affects my attitudes and responses in my life, which in turn attract their likeness and repel their opposites in my life. Therefore, I take responsibility for my life, what I believe, and how I perceive the world. Not coincidentally, this is the view of most successful people. Your beliefs create the filters in your perception, and your beliefs are accepted by you. Your beliefs come from the ideas, concepts, attitudes, and philosophies you accept to be right for you. They build on each other. So, take care to realize how your accepted ideas manifest your present way of being alive. Learn to cleanse the unwanted thoughts that have been inadvertently accepted into your mind-set. It may help to meditate on your inner beliefs and the vision of who you want to be. Then with a clean slate you can embrace a perspective that supports your dream of living and playing good golf. Dreams do come true if you commit to them passionately, if you nurture them and have the fortitude to tend to the crop through the tough times. It may not be easy, but it is worth the effort to keep the perspective alive. To bring your dreams into reality be more concerned with how you perceive the world than you are with how you think the world should be. It’s much easier to change the way you perceive the world than it is to change the world itself. You can arrange your perceptions to be aligned with your dreams. You can arrange your attitudes to be aligned with your dreams. You can arrange your commitments to be aligned with your dreams. If the reality of your life does not make your dreams come true, then it is likely that your perceptions of life are out of alignment with the process of achieving your dreams. It is also likely that your perceptions of life are out of alignment with the tasks and commitments needed to make your dreams come true. The answer is, change the way you perceive things. Reframe your life situation, and re-imagine what you want. Then start perceiving the events, situations, and relationships in your life in such a way that they will motivate you to move in the direction you need to go. Yeah, I know, my perceptions are my reality too. Everyone thinks their perception is reality. It may be their momentary reality; it’s definitely their perceived reality, but it’s not necessarily the outside world’s reality. And the outside world doesn’t care how you perceive it. It will continue to go round and round through the cycles of life no matter what you perceive. So, you might as well be prepared to feed, nurture, and support your own dreams through creating a perspective that serves the purpose of achieving your goals and dreams. Instead of having goal-oriented perceptions, many people buy into ideas of what should be. People should act this way or that way. People should be more courteous. People should be more generous. People should be more concerned about my feelings. The fact is, all these expectations come about because we are not living our dreams. We haven’t found away of achieving our goals and being prosperous. So, we need excuses. The world should be this way or that way. It’s not my fault. Maybe we need to wake up and start perceiving our situation in a more real world manner. People are people. They are going to attend to their goals and dreams more than yours. Your job is to find a way of perceiving the world that makes you more productive. Your job is to find a way of acting and behaving that keeps you moving to your goals. Your job is to find a way of being in the world and interacting with the world so that you can get where you are going in a timely manner. Stop running into perceptual walls. Stop directing yourself down dead ends. Stop fighting the world and find a way of perceiving it so that you can navigate yourself through life with an effective game plan. Start looking for the opportunities that life presents you. Don’t complain about missing opportunities when you simply choose not to look for them. How many opportunities pass you by because you are caught up in perceptions about how you think the world should be instead of paying attention to how it is and what is available for you to help you get where you want to go? What deep seeded perceptions do you hold onto, and what do they project and attract into your life? What opportunities do your perceptions bring into your life, and what limitations do they create? How do you choose to perceive your golfing journeys? Are there reoccurring themes underlying your ongoing perceptions of your game? Does the golf course look challenging to you, or does it look like a menace? Does it look friendly or like a monster? Does it look manageable or narrow? Does it look fair or unfair? Is it a place that provides you the opportunity to connect with nature, or is it a place for you to vent your frustrations? Is the course a field of play, or a gauntlet of survival? You can perceive it any way you want. However, if you want your efforts to be more productive, then make the choice to see the positive aspects of your life. Then build on those aspects. It is often hard to keep our perceptions both clear and real because we feel like we are alone in the world. It seems like the world is doing its best to keep us from succeeding. And people, they are always asking for your help, and unwilling to help you when you need it. However, there are sources of inspiration available to us. We do develop friendships and bonds that help us make the journey. Learn to recognize these relations and embrace them. They are life’s gift of opportunity and support. The way you perceive and express your existence in this lifetime will determine whether you achieve your goals, and reach your dreams. To attain these ultimate goals, you’d be wise to find a way to express yourself purposefully. And if you have a hard time doing this on your own, then you should look for those sources of inspiration that provide you the motivation to get the job done. When you find your sources of inspiration and support, when you find sources that truly care about your dreams and are committed to you through friendship, leadership, or example, do all you can to tap into their support. Show your appreciation for their efforts by repaying them with commitment. Honor their efforts by having integrity, and stay the course of your life by taking responsibility for your perceptions, choices, and actions. If you start looking for the opportunities and start perceiving life as a vehicle that is designed to help you attain your goals, you’ll find a much more fulfilling way of living your life. You’ll start moving in the directions of your dreams, and you’ll find yourself enjoying a higher level of success. |
life that require change. If you ignore them, they keep coming back. If you refuse to change them, then they keep coming back. The questions relate to the causes that bring the results into your life. Ask and answer the correct questions, and you’ll get the right causes. Ask and answer the wrong questions, and you get the wrong causes. If you have a lot of doubts and fears, then you are asking yourself the wrong questions. For example, you are studying your next shot. You have to play the shot 155 yards over water to a narrow green that has a hazard beyond the green as well. The average golfer will assess the situation something like this, “155 yards huh? That’ s in between my 7 iron and my 6 iron. I’ll choke down on the 6 iron. But, what if I get all of it and it goes long into the hazard behind the green? OK, I’ll swing a full 7 iron. But, what if I don’t get all of it, it’ll go in the pond short of the green?” At this point, no matter what the golfer does, he will approach the shot with doubt, fear, and most likely anxiety. The questions he is asking are all wrong, they only invite disaster. The accomplished golfer looks at the situation differently. “155 yards huh? That’s in between my 7 iron and my 6 iron. So, I either choke down on a 6 iron, or swing the full 7 iron. OK, which one feels the best to me right now? The full 7 iron does. I’ll go with that one.” This approach asked the right question at the right time. The options were assessed and decided upon, so the best question to ask was, “Which one feels best right now?” With this approach, she can enter into and complete her shot routine knowing she has made a good choice, and this will give her the best chance of performing a well-executed shot. What if neither option feels good? The average golfer will simply pick one of the obvious options, enter the shot routine doubtfully, and proceed to play the shot into one of the hazards. Then he’ll react negatively, complaining that he had no other option, and the situation will snowball into a quadruple bogey. If neither of the obvious options feel good to the accomplished golfer, she’ll start looking for alternative options. She’ll ask, “What other options do I have?” She can lay-up. “I can lay-up. Where do I need to lay-up so I have a good chance of getting up-and-in for par?” Now that’s a great question to ask in this situation. She might find the answer to be something like this, ”Right there. The worst score I’ll make from there is a bogey. I can live with that. Especially since I have a good chance of getting up-and-in for par.” She might ask herself, “Is there an area right or left of the green that can provide me a good angle to get up-and-in?” Another great question to ask. Sometimes there are options besides the obvious ones. You simply need to start looking for them by asking the question, “What other options do I have?” To be fair, even professionals fall into these indecisive patterns. Pro’s often say, “It was a tweener.” This an excuse. “I was between clubs,” means, he was not decisive. He didn’t make a choice he could commit to. It would have been better to play the shorter of the two clubs and position the ball below the hole if there was room, or he could of played the longer of the clubs and played the ball past the hole if there was no room short of the hole. Making an uncommitted attempt that results in missing the green and feeling the need to make an excuse is not an acceptable option, especially for a professional. The trouble was, the professional thought he needed to get the shot close to the pin. He could have chosen to play the percentages. He could have realized that this was one of those situations when you are best served playing away from the pin. And you never know, you may make that 30-foot putt when you play away from the pin. So, if you don’t like what’s happening in your life, start asking different questions. If you want to change your life, change the questions. Start giving conviction to the type of questions that will bring about the desired results. Why don’t I attract better people, situations, events, and opportunities into my life you might ask? The answer is, because what I reflect into the world attracts its likeness into my present reality. Instead of entertaining doubts of what might go wrong, start asking what you need to do to get the job done. Start asking what type of environment you need to put yourself in to be around more productive people. Start asking yourself what type of people you need to be around to achieve your goals. It is always a good idea to hang around people that have achieved the same type of goals you want to achieve compared to being around people that cannot see the vision you see. Again, start asking the right questions. What’s the best shot for this situation based on how I feel right now? Which club is the right one for this situation right now? It doesn’t matter what other people say. It doesn’t matter what other professionals profess as the best way of playing. The fact is, you need to assess how you feel right now, and you need to play into the feelings you are confident you can perform in the moment. Once you ask the question, you must be willing to listen to and accept the answer whole-heartedly. The answers might show up as gut-feelings, intuitions, or simply a sense. Whichever the case, you must be willing to listen to the answers. If your gut-feeling tells you to play the full 7 iron, and your intellect tells you to play the choke down 6 iron, go with the gut feeling. The gut feelings, intuitions, and senses that show up in the present are usually signals from your inner golfer, to go in that direction. Your intellect, the thinking mind, can often cloud the situation by analyzing, deducing, and justifying the so-called logical choices. However, logic does not tell you how you feel right now. Your feelings do. Your inner golfer is always connected to the now. Your inner golfer is always connected to how your body feels, and to the skills you are confidently ready to use, right now. So, your inner golfer is always willing to answer your questions with reality, instead of with mental gymnastics. When you ask your inner golfer what the best way of playing is, it will send you a signal through one of your awareness mechanisms, and these mechanisms include gut feelings, intuitions, and senses. By the way, every time I act on the signals sent to me by my gut feelings, they work out. Therefore, it is logical to listen to my gut feelings, intuitions, and senses. It’s the smart thing to do. Now sometimes I act on the gut feelings and I make a par where I think I could have made a birdie. In those situations, my thinking mind likes to say, ”SEE! You could have made a birdie if you listened to me instead of those feelings.” That smug little thinking mind of mine. “OK, I told myself. Let’s test this situation.” I decided to go out on the golf course at the end of twilight play and test the theory. When my mind answered the question one way, and my gut feelings answered it another way, I played two balls. I recorded my results over many afternoons of playing this way. What I found was, I did indeed make some birdies when I listened to my mind, but I also made a lot of big numbers. When I listened to my gut feelings, I didn’t make any big numbers. I made a lot of pars, my share of birdies, and very few bogeys. Additionally I noticed that I did not need to capitalize on every birdie opportunity to score well under par. It eventually became obvious to me that my inner golfer was aware of all the factors influencing my play. It already knows what the percentages are, and it automatically knows what the best options are for reaching my goals for the whole round of golf. I now play with lots of confidence in my gut feelings. If I have a question in club selection, I pull the two clubs out of my bag and waggle them one at a time. Whichever one my gut feeling tells me is right, I go with it. During practice rounds I continue to test this theory. It always works out better when I act on the answers my inner golf sends me. Whenever I listen to my thinking mind instead of my inner golfer, I feel like I am experimenting instead of playing. If I act on my mind’s inclinations, and it doesn’t work out, then I want to kick myself because I know my inner golfer knows me better than my mind. The fact is, my inner golfer is always connected to reality, and my mind will entertain fantasy any chance it gets. Does this mean there is no value to thinking? Of course not. The mind recognizes the patterns in your life. The mind can be used to ask the right questions. The mind can be used for organization and learning. The mind can be used for creativity. If the mind recognizes the patterns in such a way to send the information to the inner golfer, then the inner golfer is more prepared to send you the best answers. If the mind learns how to ask the best questions, then the inner golfer will send you the best answers directly. So, the mind can be used to organize or outline a basic game plan to get the job done, then the inner golfer can fill in the gaps with the best answers. The mind can be used for innovation through creativity, and this too will make your inner being more prepared to give you the best answers in the future. So, the mind has an integral part in learning, organizing, and staying committed to the game plan that will get the job done. However, the job is done by the body through the guidance of your inner golfer. And if you want this guidance to work its magic, then start asking your inner golfer the right questions and be willing to listen to the answ |
Table of Contents
Chapter Two- The Correct Questions 12 Chapter Three- Planting The Seeds 17 Chapter Four- Cultivate Your Perception 19 Chapter Five- Filters, Intentions, & Dreams 23 Chapter Six- Developing Total Commitment 28 Chapter Seven- Your Mind’s Nature 31 Chapter Eight- Walking The Path 38 Chapter Nine- Your Inner Golfer Talks 44
Chapter Eleven- We All Belong 56 Chapter Twelve- Genuine Absorption 62 Chapter Thirteen- Playing With Imagination 66 Chapter Fourteen- Building Heart Power 70 Chapter Fifteen- Preferences & Inclinations 75 Chapter Sixteen- Act On What You Know 80 Chapter Seventeen- The Pleasure of Overcoming 84 Chapter Eighteen- Exercising The Dream 91 |
"Life Lessons & Golf - Self Help For Golfers"
This information on this webpage was published in
EA Tischler's self-published book "Life Lessons &
Golf - Self Help For Golfers". Copyright 2003, 2006
by EA Tischler. All rights reserved.
EA Tischler's self-published book "Life Lessons &
Golf - Self Help For Golfers". Copyright 2003, 2006
by EA Tischler. All rights reserved.
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