The Mental Game of Anything

avalonms

I have played golf since I was in my late teens but until last year, never really took the game seriously or played regularly. As a result, I had a high handicap (in golf your handicap goes down the better you play) and was just not a very good player.

Last year, I started playing more and started trying to bring my handicap down. I practiced more often and have watched a lot of lessons on TV and You Tube. My handicap fell last year from 19 to 13. But I have been stuck in the 13-14 range for the last six months. I feel like I am playing better and am making more good shots, but my scores are stuck in the high 80's most of the time.

An amateur player can get a lot of advice in golf because teachers and other players have different swings and different philosophies. The key to the physical side of golf is to find the swing that works for you. But as for the mental side of golf, there is one constant both pro and good amateur players say over and over again -- do not ever let a bad shot affect your next shot. If you hit the ball in the rough, don't be a hero; just get the ball safely back in the fairway and stem the damage. If you go out of bounds or hit the ball in the water, take your penalty and forget about it. Don't try to make up for a bad shot with a low percentage miracle shot, because you won't make that one either and will only make a bad situation worse.

The mental game of golf is all about the next shot. I am struggling with this. I can have several good holes, but one bad shot or one bad hole tends to snowball on me. I can't get past it. I can be rolling along fine, but when the wheels come off, I string 3 or 4 double bogeys or worse together and next thing you know, my round is sabotaged. And that's the reason why I am stuck at 13-14.

I've been thinking that the mental side in making a diet change or trying to adopt a healthier lifestyle is much like the mental side of golf. We frequently see on the boards or feeds here that people struggle with one bad day which turns to two then a whole week then all of a sudden all prior gains are lost. We are not robots. We can't hit every ball in the fairway or on the green and we can't always eat right or get to the gym. The mental game of lifestyle change and healthy living says that after a bad day or two, you have to just "get back out into the fairway." Focus on the next shot day because you can't undo the bad one.