Gratitude turns what we have into enough

No matter how you practice gratitude, you need to do it! Don't just talk about what you are grateful for, but how you feel it! What gratitude does is makes you focus on what you do have vs focusing on what don't have. Focusing on what you don't have can make you believe that you can't be happy until you've gotten that thing. Gratitude was created to make you feel better RIGHT NOW! ​

​We are implementing this so that we can fully appreciate the little things within the four hours we're out there. It is in that appreciation that we no longer triggered by the irrelevant. 

Before we start there is an idea that I want you to be aware of. This idea based around a "sponsoring thought". A sponsoring thought is one that lies beneath another thought. There is only two places that this thought comes from, love or hate. This is also typically going to be your first thought. So how do we influence these sponsoring thoughts? 

​Example: The little voice that is in your head that tells you that you are going to hit it in the water. It's ok to have that voice. We then have the ability to choose. At this moment we decide on the fairway and we don't look back. 

A sponsoring thought may also get confused with something that you think is external. (The world is out to get me). When in reality it is the lack of effort in shifting negative sponsoring thoughts. 

How can we create a gratitude practice that lasts? 

1. Gratitude creates context that creates perspective
- focus on the positives your golf game possess

2. Begin/end every round gratitude habit. 
- starts you off with energy
- starts you off with high spirits
- end your day the same way
- helps frame your round in a constructive way (perspective) 
- find 3 things to be grateful for at the beginning and end of every round. 

3. Nothing in life happens alone (even on the golf course)
- Be grateful for everybody who has had a hand in allowing you to play today
- Be grateful for everybody who taught you something along the way
- Be grateful for every frustrating round of golf you've played 
- Even when you feel that you are alone out there, you aren't if you lean on gratitude. (the people who make your life possible.)
 
4. Show your golf clubs gratitude. 
- don't hesitate to tell them thank you
- don't hesitate to tell your clubs that you appreciate them. 
- obviously they can't hear you, but you can hear yourself and that is where the benefit from this is derived. 

5. Can help flip your mood 180 degrees. 
- - easiest way to turn it around is to be grateful
- the associated feels we have with the things that have happened in the past or the things that could happen in the future, are not real, but seem completely real. Gratitude brings you back to the present moment. 
- whenever you get upset, start big, be grateful for the opportunity to play golf, be grateful that you have two arms and two legs, be grateful that you are healthy, be grateful that you have a car to get to the course, be grateful that you have clothes on and the list could literally go on forever. The smallest little thing has the ability to change your entire mood simply based on gratitude. 

6. Don't spend money on items, spend money on experiences. 
- when you look into your golf bag and see that nothing in there is older than the age of 2, maybe you should start spending your money on a golf experience. Spend money on picking a particular group to play with or attending a specific clinic but let's get away from thinking that the equipment is holding us back from playing our best. 

7. Show gratitude towards the holes and clubs that have "wronged" you.
- the feeling that the course has caused you pain or suffereing
- the feeling that you never hit this club well
- hitting acceptance is the most important element. You are no longer carrying the feeling that you are ill willed towards a hole/course/club. 
- Without you hating the hole as much as you hate it, you wouldn't have become as strong as you are today. That hole was the furnace and you came out stronger. You had to become a greater version of yourself to heal from the trauma of the hole. You are giving yourself a disservice when you don't appreciate both sides of the spectrum.