In July I played in a golf competition with Martin. He is a very good player, but as we approached the first short hole he complained that his unfulfilled ambition was to score a hole-in-one.
So how does a tour coach handle this kind of comment? Pretty much the same way every time this frequent golf comment surfaces. By asking a question.
‘What are you thinking about before you hit the ball?’
Martin gave a good answer, but be aware that the enemy of the best is the good.
‘I aim at the flag, and try to get the ball as close as possible.’
We call this visualisation, and it is a supremely important process in whatever we do in life. However most people’s visualisations are somewhat vanilla, to say the least. By contrast clients who have vivid visualisation skills do extremely well, and fortunately these skills can be taught.
I only had a few seconds to add a further comment, so I just made one quick suggestion.
‘In your mind’s eye watch the ball land on the green and bounce into the hole, and see how happy this makes you feel.’
We both quickly forgot our little conversation, and continued with our game.
Until I met Martin again last week.
‘Hi Steve, I just want to thank for you my first hole-in-one two days after we played together.’
What a coincidence! Even more of a coincidence that so many of my clients score aces, often more than once. The record so far is five!
I can’t explain this, other than that I am convinced that we do not live in a random universe.
So whatever you wish to achieve in life be sure to put yourself in the picture. If you can’t do this then you’d better drop me an email quickly!
