Monitor
Your Thoughts On The
Course
Without
knowing it, you could
be sabotaging your performance
on the golf course with
negative thoughts.
How
is this possible? Because
it's your mind which controls
your body, and your mind
is programmed by
your daily thoughts. On
top of that, most of the
time you may not even KNOW
when you are thinking negative
thoughts -
because 90% of human thought
becomes habitual, which
means it can no
longer be noticed by your
conscious mind.
It
is essential to begin noticing
what you are thinking almost
every moment you are
on the course - especially after
a bad shot, which is
the number one time for
thinking negative thoughts!
One of the crucial reasons
for removing negative
thoughts is because they
create powerful beliefs which
can be very difficult
to overcome (eg. the
yips).
The
first and most difficult
step to conquering negative
thoughts is to first of
all notice
them.
That is the hardest part,
because so many of them
may be habitual. Negative
thoughts appear not only
in the form of thoughts,
but also appear in our
everyday speech and the
words we use - so monitoring
your speech and your thoughts
for negative
thoughts whilst
on the golf course is essential. There
is no way of removing negatives from
your everyday thought pattern
without this.
The
second step is to remove
them immediately upon discovering
them. The simplest and
easiest way I can explain
(in this short tip) is
to simply replace
the negative thought with
the exact
opposite thought. For
example, a golfer might
hit a tee shot which they
are unhappy with, and instantly
they find themselves abusing
themselves (ie. "how
could you be so stupid" etc).
This
is the perfect time to
replace those thoughts
(before the negative thought
becomes emotional,
and then it's too late)
with something more positive
- ie. "that's
not the shot I was wanting
to hit, but I'm not going
to let it bother me, I'm
going to focus upon hitting
a great second shot".
Of
course, if the second shot
isn't so great, then it
takes great willpower to
continue doing this (!),
but this is what MUST be
done in order to break
the habitual hold the
negative thoughts can have
on your thinking whilst
on the course.
Once
your mind is habitually
thinking positive thoughts
whilst on the course (and
this can takes quite a
while to achieve fully),
you will see a dramatic
improvement in your general
standard of golf. This
is no surprise, of course,
as your mind is the control-centre
of all movement - and of
course your golf swing.
