"Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have"
"Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have"
Neither the past nor the future is of relevance if you can’t enjoy this very moment right now. The present moment is your biggest treasure in life, and it’s what you should protect most.
Once you manage to be in the present moment with all your thoughts and emotions, you realize how everything else loses importance. The crazy thing about when you are truly present is once you have it, it doesn't leave. It is almost like a superpower that you can tap into. You most likely aren't going to be able to be in control of what you feel when you are on the course, but you are in control of what you think, and that has the ability to change the way that you feel.
Being present is no magic, but neither is it a coincidence. It is rather a result of small, conscious activities that lead to a more clear and focused mind to get us through our round.
Once you manage to be in the present moment with all your thoughts and emotions, you realize how everything else loses importance. The crazy thing about when you are truly present is once you have it, it doesn't leave. It is almost like a superpower that you can tap into. You most likely aren't going to be able to be in control of what you feel when you are on the course, but you are in control of what you think, and that has the ability to change the way that you feel.
Being present is no magic, but neither is it a coincidence. It is rather a result of small, conscious activities that lead to a more clear and focused mind to get us through our round.
Why is it so important that I stay present during my round?
You know what, I am so glad you asked. Without staying present, you can't focus on one shot at a time.
Living in the Past
If you are living in the past, it diminishes your ability to be in the present, thus creating more shit golf shots. A shot in the past can extend from a shot 5 holes ago to the one you just hit. As soon as you start moving towards your next shot, the one you just hit has to be forgotten. If you really are upset and don't want to get over it right away, just stand in the same place until you can control your thoughts. *What you are going to learn through that process is that eventually you start getting over golf shots much quicker, thus allowing you to start taking in information for your next shot and put yourself in a position to succeed.
Living in the Future
There are two scenarios in which one will find their mind drifting into the future. The first is when you are playing bad. You had a shitty start and you start looking at the scorecard trying to calculate how you are going to shoot the stupid ass target score that you gave yourself to start the day. All this is going to do is put an unnecessary amount of pressure on yourself, thus making it more difficult to hit your current shot. The second situation comes when you are playing way better than you were expecting to. You haven't looked at the scorecard all day and then on the 14th hole you look and realize that all you have to do is make 2 pars and 2 bogeys coming in and you will shoot your best score. At the moment, you have lost. I promise that you will do something stupid and you won't have an explanation for it. In reality all that happened was you weren't in the present, thus no longer having any control over the shot at hand.
How to stay present:
1. Know the ways chronic stress shows up in your game
- You need to be aware it is coming
- Otherwise you aren’t going to be able to do anything about it
(what happens to my body when I am stressed?)
- Me: heart rate increases, shorter breaths, sweaty palms, stop smiling
2. Gotta understand that your power always lies in the present moment
- You only feel anxiety, fear, etc when it is something ahead/behind you that you have no control over
regret/remorese = past/present (gulit/shame)
3. How you choose to respond will either enhance or minimize the stress (golf shot)
- You have the power to dictate how much stress a situation can have (more/less)
- You can influence how you feel by focusing your thinking
- If you want to feel different, think different thoughts
- It really is that simple
- We do this stuff all the time but forget about it in the moment of stress
4. You have to catch the thoughts that are making the stress worse.
- If you stay absent long enough, the chronic stress will always get you
5. Change the internal conversation
- You now understand how it works
- Adding more happy, loving thoughts
- Stack the scale towards positivity/presentness so that when negative thoughts happen, which they will, your meter will still be well within the present/positivity side
- I can do this
- I’m the best
- If anybody can, its me
- I’ve been in this situation before
- I trust myself
- One breath at a time…….literally
6. Go to the other tools in your toolbox
- Figure it out
- At some point you’ve done this before
- There is something in your toolbox that works
- DO THE THING THAT WORKS FOR YOU
- Must reflect on the wins
- Hence why the negatives are irrelevant
- There are a million and one ways to swing a golf club, you have to use what works for you..
- Don’t have very many tools?
- Start trying new things
- THIS IS WHAT THE DRIVING RANGE IS FOR
- You have to be willing to add to your toolbox
7. Spot the takeaways and lean the lessons
- There is always something positive to takeaway from a round
- There is alway a lesson to be learned within a round
- Really digest these two areas when assessing how to further improve the next time
- Ideally you get better every time you play
- By reflecting you are going to remember what worked and what didn’t work and that is how you grow as a golfer.
- Without reflection you will continue to fall back into the same mental habits that we are trying so hard to break.
- Don’t become a victim
- No “why me” or “I’m never going to…..”
END GAME
Sit back/reflect/ and think “I really made some strides today”. Stay consistent in the regiment, and continue to grow each and every round. Continue reflecting on how you showed up, put that in your back pocket and pull it out the next time you are in the same situation again.
- You need to be aware it is coming
- Otherwise you aren’t going to be able to do anything about it
(what happens to my body when I am stressed?)
- Me: heart rate increases, shorter breaths, sweaty palms, stop smiling
2. Gotta understand that your power always lies in the present moment
- You only feel anxiety, fear, etc when it is something ahead/behind you that you have no control over
regret/remorese = past/present (gulit/shame)
3. How you choose to respond will either enhance or minimize the stress (golf shot)
- You have the power to dictate how much stress a situation can have (more/less)
- You can influence how you feel by focusing your thinking
- If you want to feel different, think different thoughts
- It really is that simple
- We do this stuff all the time but forget about it in the moment of stress
4. You have to catch the thoughts that are making the stress worse.
- If you stay absent long enough, the chronic stress will always get you
5. Change the internal conversation
- You now understand how it works
- Adding more happy, loving thoughts
- Stack the scale towards positivity/presentness so that when negative thoughts happen, which they will, your meter will still be well within the present/positivity side
- I can do this
- I’m the best
- If anybody can, its me
- I’ve been in this situation before
- I trust myself
- One breath at a time…….literally
6. Go to the other tools in your toolbox
- Figure it out
- At some point you’ve done this before
- There is something in your toolbox that works
- DO THE THING THAT WORKS FOR YOU
- Must reflect on the wins
- Hence why the negatives are irrelevant
- There are a million and one ways to swing a golf club, you have to use what works for you..
- Don’t have very many tools?
- Start trying new things
- THIS IS WHAT THE DRIVING RANGE IS FOR
- You have to be willing to add to your toolbox
7. Spot the takeaways and lean the lessons
- There is always something positive to takeaway from a round
- There is alway a lesson to be learned within a round
- Really digest these two areas when assessing how to further improve the next time
- Ideally you get better every time you play
- By reflecting you are going to remember what worked and what didn’t work and that is how you grow as a golfer.
- Without reflection you will continue to fall back into the same mental habits that we are trying so hard to break.
- Don’t become a victim
- No “why me” or “I’m never going to…..”
END GAME
Sit back/reflect/ and think “I really made some strides today”. Stay consistent in the regiment, and continue to grow each and every round. Continue reflecting on how you showed up, put that in your back pocket and pull it out the next time you are in the same situation again.