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Dear Golfer, Have you ever noticed how easy it is to become pessimistic while golfing? Apparently, pessimism is typical for human beings. When faced with obstacles, most people become passive and tend to give up…it’s been proven in psychological experiments for over 25 years.1 How about you? How do you react when bad things happen on the golf course? Remember that pessimism and negativity are not the same thing. You can be an upbeat, cheerful person, yet be vulnerable to pessimism. Pessimistic means that when you suffer a setback, you assume it is going to continue.2 Example: You are golfing and suddenly you miss three shots in a row. Most golfers, when faced with this situation, become pessimistic. On an unconscious level, they start to believe that the slump is permanent, at least for the rest of that game. Pessimism is deadly on the golf course because it destroys your desire to LEARN. Most of the time when we fail in golf, it’s not bad luck. We are merely ignorant of how to succeed, and we need to learn a new approach. Example: If you’re missing your putts, chances are you need a new approach to putting. Perhaps you need to new method of assessing the putt, a swing adjustment, or a new pre-swing routine. If you’re optimistic, you’ll quickly start looking for ways to improve your putting. As your putting improves, you’ll naturally become more hopeful…and hope is the stuff of champions. My sister, Cara, one of the best ringette players who ever lived, was excellent at creating hope under dire circumstances. (Ringette is a sport similar to ice hockey played in several countries throughout the world). In the 1998 World Championships, we got clobbered 10-2 in the first period vs. Finland. In the dressing room in between periods, the players looked pretty shell-shocked. I don’t think there was a shred of hope left among us. Cara gathered us together and said, “Okay. This game is basically over. Now our job is to LEARN for the next two periods. We’re going to play them tomorrow again and when we do, it’s going to be different.” That’s exactly what we did. We ended up losing the first game 19-5. It was the most humiliating loss all of us had ever experienced. But the next day, we beat Finland 8-7 in overtime. In the parking lot after the game, one of the fans walked up to me and said, “I have no idea how your team came back like that.” I smiled. I knew it was the magic of optimism. How You Can Be More Optimistic For inspiration on optimism, I like the story of Muhammed Ali. Ali, a 3 time World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, was so successful that he was voted the Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated. Ali was famous for psyching himself up using optimism. He repeated called himself The Greatest. This was a deliberate strategy on his part. Ali has even been quoted as saying, “I figured if I said it enough, I would convince the world I really was the Greatest.” Of course, the person Ali was really speaking to was himself. Being optimistic doesn’t mean you need to tell everyone you are the greatest (in fact, I don’t recommend this. It may make you highly unpopular). It just means creating hope for yourself when encountering obstacles. And this means being committed to learning what you need to learn to succeed at golf. At these times, there’s no substitute for old-fashioned positive self-talk. The words, “I can do it,” can be the magic phrase you need when all hope seems lost. It worked for Ali. Why not you? I’ll talk to you again soon. Your Friend, Lisa Brown P.S. If you haven’t yet downloaded my online book, Breakthrough Golf! Lower Your Score Now Using the Mental Secrets of Professional Athletes, I recommend you do that now. It’s full of practical tips you can use immediately to improve your game. For details, simply go to: http://www.golfgamesecrets.com/sales/
Article Source: http://www.golfarticles.net
1-2Seligman, Martin. How to Change Your Mind and Your Life. Pocket Books, 1990.
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