Written by Scott Dunford
If you’ve played a lot of golf over the years, you’ve no doubt thought about how golf imitates life. Loads of people have written articles, books and blogs on the subject because it is one sport like no other that offers some great life lessons.
I believe there are five basic life lessons that golf offers:
Patience: Patience with your own ability to learn a difficult task is the key to mastering it. Golf is an extremely difficult game to play well. And by playing well I’m saying a single digit handicap or better. Less than 2% of the world’s golf population can say they’re a single digit handicapper! So why do you think in two or three years you’ll become one? It requires your precious time and an unwavering desire to improve. It comes to those who practice and/or play often.
If you’re a self-taught athlete, good for you, but most people need instruction. At a minimum, learn the fundamentals from a professional and then spend a majority of your time practicing those fundamentals. You’re still not going to play well every time but you can correct mistakes and then learn from those mistakes. Just like life… in order to be good at your job, good with people, advance in school or learn a new career, you’ve got to be patient with your lack of knowledge and experience and appreciate and learn from those who posses it. Watching the 2015 Hyundai Tournament of Champions final interview with winner Patrick Reed, his comment solidifies patience even when you’re one of the best in the world. He said, “I just tried to stay patient.”
Anger Management: If you can control yourself by maintaining a positive attitude, avoid throwing clubs and screaming obscenities, you’ll not only play more consistent golf but you’ll also attract similar people who enjoy playing with you. And isn’t that why we love this game? It’s the social interactions with friends and those who we meet on the course. Anger never solved anything. It’s the enemy in just about every aspect of our lives with maybe one exception, making a life or death decision. Golf will never be a life or death situation so get over it. Unleashed anger in life usually has unwanted consequences that can lead to heartache or prison. Unleashed anger while playing golf creates increased frustration, more missed shots, broken clubs, loss of concentration and inevitable broken relationships.
Respect: You need to respect the game, its rules, the people you play with and those who will follow you. Rake the bunkers, fix your putting green divots, sand or replace your fairway divots and so on. There’s nothing ruder than a golfer who doesn’t care enough to leave the course in as good of shape as they played it. Respect the rules of the game. “If you don’t respect the rules, how will you ever know if you’re improving?”
In golf it’s real easy to cheat because you’re responsible for replacing a lost ball with proper relief and accept a stroke penalty. You typically keep your own score and post that score accurately to establish your true handicap. Life’s big and little mistakes are inevitable. In golf and in life, we should take responsibility for that bad decision and make an effort to correct it. It’s not that you will never make a similar mistake but that you properly took the steps to avoid making it again and again. Good habits like bad habits are easy to repeat. Set yourself up for success choosing to make good habits that promote self respect.
Focus: It’s as easy as turning on a positive switch that focuses on making a good swing with a favorable result. Envision the ball flying through the air and landing right where you want it to. It doesn’t always work out that way but if you don’t focus, it won’t! Focus in golf is critical. Without it, you go into automatic pilot, which works great in airplanes but rarely in making good golf shots.
Focus on one or two swing thoughts max. If you try to focus on more than that, it gets confusing and you’ll find yourself in that black hole of not knowing what you did wrong, thus no where to go to correct the mistake.
Lack in focus in life leads to unemployment, shallow relationships, auto accidents and dreams never achieved. When we’re young we should be focusing on our future. Where are we going to college? What do I want in a future mate? Take the necessary steps to achieve those goals before life happens and you loose that choice. If you’re just learning the game or having difficulty finding your way back, focus on the fundamentals at the driving range. Work on one goal at a time but don’t loose your focus on the ultimate prize; once confident with that first goal, move to another and so on. When we focus on the basics first and see that we can achieve success, we’re more likely and motivated to tackle the next one. “Narrow your depth of field in order to see the final goal more clearly!”
Setting Goals: Goals are imperative to reaching our potential; if we don’t set goals for ourselves we’ll remain mediocre golfers. Without goals we will never see ourselves as consistently improving. Same is true in life. Goal setting helps us stay on track and allows us that very important gratification that comes from being successful at a task we’ve set our sights on.
Every Motivational Speaker I’ve ever heard professes goal setting as one of the most important aspects of becoming successful in any career choice or personal achievement. If you choose to play golf well while living a good life, set realistic goals to ensure you recognize when you’re improving. Without setting goals and achieving them, you’ll find it difficult to stay motivated.
There you have it. The five characteristics of why golf imitates life by Scott Dunford. You may have your own interpretations of each one but the bottom line is that we need all five to become successful in the game of golf and life. Eliminate one and it’s a domino effect. They all go hand in golf glove hand! See ya on the links.
