Changing Things for the Better

Many years ago, long before Sports Psychologists invented themselves, I introduced a strong Mind Management element into my coaching at Golf Schools and when working privately with clients.

I was only one lesson ahead of my clients at the time, you understand, but they were not to know this and the more I studied the more I learnt - and the more my clients benefited, even in areas of their lives outside of golf.

I set off down this road when a friend, seeing that I was going through a "dark phase" in my young life, sent me a book entitled PSYCHO CYBERNETICS by Maxwell Maltz.  There was no letter enclosed in the package just a handwritten message that said "Best Wishes, Roger".

The book, written by a Plastic Surgeon, changed my life!

In the same way that he helped patients, those with large noses or ears or whatever that affected their self-image and confidence, to realise they were neither ugly nor abnormal [and so perform less surgery], so also did he help me to look at myself in a different way.

The book helped me to see things clearly, to recognise that what I perceived of myself at the time was not true - that is was only an image that I had painted of myself in my mind, mostly based upon illogical conclusions that I had arrived at.

It taught me that my worries about the future were only images also; they were not real.  The only thing that was REAL was that what was happening at this very moment; how I was thinking and behaving right now.  All things past and future were/are irrelevant.

The more I read the more I discovered that one can learn from the past and plan for the future but that the only meaningful moment in our lives is right now; how we are thinking and how we "react" to these thoughts through the way we behave right now.

I realised that the way we react and behave are merely reflections of what we are seeing on our internal mental movie-screens and in the way we interpret those images - but they are not real, they are only images. 

Everything that we see and everything that we think - we get!  We REACT to those images.

If the Brain is nothing more than a computer sitting in "idle" until an instruction is given then the Programme for the Brain is our IMAGINATION.

It responds by giving us exactly that what we "put up on the screen".

I am going to share more of my "discoveries" with you later but, right now I recommend these books to you.  For me they were "inspirational".  I know you will be inspired by them also:

• The Inner Game of Golf [Tim Gallwey]
• Winning [Frank Dick]
• Zen Golf [Dr. Joseph Parent]

Few things in life come easily.  We must fight hard to replace old habits with new ones but within these pages you will find the tools to improve your yourself and your golf for the better.

Enjoy the Journey!