1) A Commitment to Fun Yes, you heard me correctly. Too many golfers lose sight of why they are playing in the first place. You are there to enjoy yourself; embrace it! Things can go awry when you start taking golf too seriously and focus too much on the performance aspect. Always remember this is not your job; it is your leisure. A surprising side benefit is you'll likely play better and shoot lower scores by relieving pressure on yourself. 2) No One Gives a Sh*t Golfers are selfish and mostly care about their own games. We will all embarrass ourselves in front of each other. Once you accept that and stop worrying about what others think, your game will be in a better place. 3) Stop Being a Control Freak Golf tricks us into believing we have more control than we do. Drawing the line between what we can control and what we can't control is transformational. Here are the "Big 3" of what you can control - Preparation: practice, studying a course, etc. - Routine: exerting total control over how you approach each shot - Your Reaction: how you process each shot, emotional and analytical responses Here's what you cannot control - Variability of technique: each day, a different golfer shows up. It's frustrating, but you have to accept it! - The Universe: golf is played in the elements and on uneven terrain. You'll get a bad gust of wind or an "unlucky" bounce. 4) Staying in the Moment Golf is a battle between the past and future. We ruminate on shots that have already occurred. We also worry about shots that haven't happened. Introducing mindfulness and meditation techniques to your game can help fight this battle. Though, you'll never win it. There are ways to keep your focus on the "now" when you play. Routine, breathing, taking a moment to soak in the experience. 5) Growing Your Grit The word grit often gets a bad rep. You don't always have to be grinding and white-knuckling it through your rounds to see better results. Grit is a "perseverance and passion for long-term goals."

If something unexpected happens on the golf course that throws us off we can react and say: "This should not be happening!" Or “Why always me?!” Or we can train ourselves to respond and go with the flow. You can't keep what's happening from happening. But you can choose how to respond. You can react and get the sympathetic nervous system riled up and flood your body with stress hormones that impede your game. Or you can sit back, breathe, observe what's happening, and respond to what is, rather than what you think should be, could have been, or was supposed to be. Perhaps your response could be; "Okay, so this is happening instead of that. Wow, well, I need to change course and find a new path out of this situation." As Bruce Lee liked to say ‘This is like being fluid like water’…. not rigid like ice! It's about responding to the flow of the game rather than reacting, because responding facilitates flow; reacting obstructs it! When you're driven or motivated to act out of fear, anger, or any other unwholesome thoughts or feelings that cloud your mind, you generally react wrongly. That ultimately messes with your performance. The key to step back and investigate your initial thoughts/reaction, pay attention, and observe them in order to abandon them… Respond not React!

Journaling has been around for a very long time and people use this in various ways, particularly to note learnings from days they've had, seminars attended etc. A practice journal for golf is a great way of being able to plan out your session, so you can help yourself stick to what you want to get out of that practice. A highly important element to this is making sure you note down at least three things you learned from the session. This will help learnings from your practice ingrain even more. Soon you'll have a a great reference source of not only various practice plans that you can revisit in future sessions, but also remind yourself of what you learnt... this can only help you improve your game!

Using a movie quote from Star Wars today (Im not particularly a fan of Star Wars by the way) but one I felt resonates when you add a golf sense to it; Luke Skywalker: Oh, no! We'll never get it out now! Yoda: So certain, are you? Always with you, it cannot be done. Hear you nothing that I say? Luke: Master, moving stones around is one thing, but this is..totally different! Yoda: No! No different! Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned. Luke: All right, I give it a try. Yoda: No! Try not. Do...or do not. There is no try. What Yoda is essentially saying is that Luke needs to commit. You either move forward with intention, or you dont. There's no in-between. You do… or you do not. You keep your intentions good and strong. Think how that can apply to your golf!

A short but potentially very effective one today…Golf hacks for lower scores! More routine > less swing thoughts More targets > less guessing More middle of greens > less flags More short game > less range balls More course management > less hero shots More commitment > less doubt More process > less results thinking More planned practice > less banging balls More confidence > less frustration