An Important Lesson

I have been reading the book Golf is Not a Game of Perfect by Dr. Bob Rottela. It is the 2nd time I have read it and has reminded me of so many lesson. When I played baseball I always waited for me to fail. I don't know why but I always felt inadequate and thought I wasn't any good. I know now that I was my own worst enemy. I wish I could go back and talk to myself. I wonder how good I could have been. I talk constantly to my boys and my teams about believing in yourself. I also make sure that they see themselves hitting the ball or making the catch. The mind is an amazing thing. It doesnt know the difference between reality or what we dream. Just think about all the times you have woken up so scared from a dream. You thought it was real. It is the same thing when we visualize. This is one of the things that I love about Sarah. She thinks she is awesome, doesn't care what others think, and always believes she will succeed. Her confidence glows and people always wonder how she gets stuff. It is because she believes in herself. She believes she will succeed and is not afraid of failure. She has worked on this with me and it has helped my belief in myself. I no longer believe I am going to lose or fail. I am shocked when I am in a raffle and don't win. I have played some matches and can honestly say that I have played well in pressure situations. Even when my heart was pumping and hands shaking I was still able to hit the shot because I believed I could. Now just believing you can hit the shot doesn't mean you are going to do it, but not believing you can hit the shot is almost always disastrous. And as proof of this today was Bill Hass in the tourney in LA. He knew there was no way he could pull off a shot. So he choose the shot he could pull off even though it meant possible not making birdie. However, he ended up making the putt and winning the tournament. Instead of hitting a shot he had a 1/1000 chance, he choose a shot that he would pull of 99/100 and than gave himself a 3/100 chance of making the putt. I like those odds much better. I think this is where I am going to make up a lot of my strokes. A better course management and a belief in myself. Try it sometime if you play, you may be surprised at the scores you shoot. Here is to making birdies.

MIKE