-
New Release
The Fairway Of Life
Simple Secrets To Playing Better Golf By Going With The Flow ~
Rand Scott Marquardt
Life & Mental Golf Performance Coach 
FeedBurner-
Upcoming Events
Vist Me On...
DandyID
Digg
Twitter
YouTube
MySpace
FacebookSeveral Ways To Skin a Cat
There are several ways to skin a cat, and there are several ways to play this game of golf. Some, like Bubba Watson, don’t like to be told anything. He’s got a completely open, fun and carefree attitude, “I’m just making it all up as I go.” Others, like Zach Johnson surrounds himself with a team, which he feels allows him to stay on track and keep improving through statistics. His Sports Psychologist, Dr. Mo Pickens is constantly working with Zach in all aspects of his life – even his golf game. Then there’s a whole other group of local club pro’s and amateurs who like to have a few beers for a fun social round and, don’t forget, aiming fluid.
Which method fits best for you? Personally, I believe I am little bit of all three of these types. I figure I’ll take a little bit from each of them. I like Bubba’s attitude because we really are making it all up. I like Zach Johnson’s approach to stay on task and keep improving on the areas that need to be approved upon. I’m also quite social on the golf course and I do feel a couple beers helps calm the nerves. I just don’t want to become dependent upon them. Therefore, I wish to keep on depositing more and more beneficial beliefs into the treasury of my subconscious mind, so I can play the game with the freedom to be more fully self-expressed with or without. What about you? What’s your method? What works and what doesn’t work for you?
Self-Image: A Return To Being Tiger-like
Needless to say, most people have an opinion regarding the rise and fall of Tiger Woods. I expect an epic movie depicting, at one time, the world’s greatest athlete in the near future. What we don’t yet know is how it all ends? While many experts, like Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus offer us their takes on what it will take for Tiger to return to prominence, only Tiger can write the script. Personally, I believe Tiger has all the talent in the world to become world’s #1 again. It was his dream since early childhood, his father and mother groomed him, and he declared it for himself. Can he return to being #1 in world again? Here is my take.
Tiger has to heal, forgive, and feel good about him Self. He has to heal both physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. In order to be at one’s personal best you must become a match to whom you really are. Essentially, you must love your Self. Life’s most basic challenge is a return to love, a return to being who we really are, a return to being in alignment with our authentic, highest Self. You must love being you, and be at peace with your Self.
According to Janet Helfrich, Mental Skill Development, Sport Psychology Professor at Central Michigan University, “There is a positive correlation between athletes’ feelings about themselves and the way they perform in competition.” Professional golfer Tiger Woods (pre-infidelity) was often seen smiling whether he is on the golf course or talking to reporters.” When asked why he smiles so much Tiger replied, “I like being Tiger Woods.” When his infidelity issue broke Tiger went into a deep seclusion, which lead to some intense counseling. His self-image from what others thought and perhaps what he thought of him Self, was crushed and so it was with his golf game. The world awaits his ascension back to excellence, or not? We are seeing glimpses of that greatness as I write this today. Tiger leads Arnold’s Bay Hill Invitational after two rounds. The buzz is back and according to Ernie Els, so is Tiger.
Tiger’s personal inner journey with his demons and how he makes peace with himself will ultimately determine his fate as an elite champion on the golf course and whether he reaches 19 majors or not? When our mind and emotions are cluttered with all sorts of negative, destructive juju, or other foolish self-sabotaging behaviors it will eventually show up in all aspects of our lives, including our golf game.
For Tiger to return to being Totally Tiger he will have to make peace with his past, and truly learn to totally love himself again. His personal self-image of himself will become and is a direct match to his success or “failure” / results on the golf course.
According to Helfrich, “Our self-image can be defined as the conscious and subconscious image we have of ourselves. This image includes all of our past failures and successes as well as our future assets, liabilities and possibilities. It is an image of how we see ourselves and our future potential of who we are capable of becoming. Since the subconscious mind does not think or reason, it will perform the way it has been programmed. This is why the self-image that we have of ourselves is very powerful and has tremendous influence over our present and future abilities, performances and potential.”
While our self-image can become tainted from what others think of us, we must be careful not to fall into that trap. We are whole, loved, worthy, deserving, and enough just exactly as we are. Many will judge us otherwise; even crucify us. Remember: the one doing the judging, judges themselves. Let go of your need to judge another and you will stop judging yourself so harshly. Let go of your need to judge and simply allow others to be their best along their own journey. After all, everyone is doing the best they can with the tools, knowledge, and resources available to them at this moment in time. Let go of your need to judge and practice the art of simply observing.
Observing versus judging changes everything, including your golf game. It’s a complete paradigm shift in attitude, demeanor, gratitude and self-awareness. Your whole world will turn upside down for the better when you simply observe without judgment and begin to love all of it unconditionally. Observe, notice, become aware, become an objective detective in your own process on and off the golf course versus the raging lunatic that creeps in from time to time before. Look – we all have fallen short, missed the mark, at one time or another and we all keep getting back up. You are forgiven, now it’s just a matter of you realizing it and getting healthy again, getting yourself back up to speed with who you really are. Source sees us as our true, authentic, higher Selves. Become a match to that! Our life challenges are meant for the growth of our own soul. We all have them. We all have the capability to heal, forgive, and love ourselves. We all have the capability to embrace the dark aspects within our shadow, find the gift it brings, love all of who we are, and simply chose again by recreating ourselves anew into the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever we held about who we really are.
Whether it is Tiger’s comeback or our own, we become a direct match to how we think and feel about ourselves. We become what we think!
The Zone
The Zone is our natural state of being. The Zone is not a place we seek or try or hope to find or get in to, it is us who have taken ourselves out of The Zone. The Zone is like The Sun it is always shining. “Removing the clouds does not cause the sun to shine, but merely reveals what was hidden all along,” Dr. David R. Hawkins.
Therefore, your work, if you so chose to embark upon it, is to one-by-one remove all the obstacles and blocks and clouds that are preventing you from being in The Zone. There are literally hundreds of them with different names. The categories are Fear, Ego, Limited Beliefs, Negative Thoughts, and other foolish self-sabotaging behaviors.
To learn more or to be coached personally pick up a copy of my book, The Fairway of Life, or call me. Only a few will put in the necessary work it takes. Many will give it lip service, and most will do nothing at all. Remember what Einstein said about insanity….repeating the same things over and over again expecting different results. You’ve got to change your energy within to get different results. You got to change your beliefs, your thoughts, your mind-set that get deposited into the treasury of your subconscious mind. Basically, you’ve got to re-create yourself anew becoming the next grandest version of who you really are.
Letting Go
Letting go of your need to control your golf game allows you the freedom to play with full self-expression.
Letting go of your need for acceptance from others allows you the freedom to play with full self-expression.
Letting go of your need to feel safe and play small allows you the freedom to play with full self-expression.
Are you willing to let go? Another way of stating this divine principle is Let Go & Let God. Just BE who you really are and your golf game & life will flourish and thrive like that of a child building sandcastles near the shore of a beach.
WooHoo – I’m on fire!
Using your imagination, visualizing your shot, being present, trusting and committing to your swing are all essential aspects to playing your best golf. But if I told you to relax more, not take the game so serious, and be okay with whatever happens – that this too leads to more fun, more outrageous joy, more WooHoo ‘I’m on fire’ kind of demeanor – and you’ll play better golf, would you believe me? When you let go and find relief and learn to go with the flow downstream versus struggling ever so mightily paddling against the current upstream – you will find The Zone and the freedom to more fully express yourself without getting in your own way. Learn to trust life and let life trust you.
Remember: “If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, you’re both right,” Henry Ford. Likewise, if you think what I am inviting you to experience works, or doesn’t work, you’re right. You can accept or reject anything. The mind is a very powerful tool that has been running your life like a computer on automatic pilot for many years now. This is your subconscious brain, which runs 95% of everything in your life, including your golf game. Want to change the way you play golf for the better? You’ve got to change your thoughts and deposit more and more beneficial beliefs into the treasury of your subconscious mind that will automatically allow you to play golf with your natural freedom of expression.
The answer and wisdom lies within you. Now, it is up to you and your own Divine Mind to let it happen. If you (your ego) “thinks” that you can figure it all out – good luck. I tried that approach for over 30 years learning to hate the game I love. Thinking and doing the same things over and over again from an ego’s perspective is not only insane (Albert Einstein), it keeps you in the same stuck pattern of mediocrity, self-pity, fear, limited beliefs, and negative juju. Acting as if it is so from a Divine Mind perspective allows you to have more fun, smile often, enjoy, and develop an attitude of gratitude for this marvelous game of golf.
Ask and it is given
The Universe works in mysterious ways. I am inviting you to trust this vibrational power that is within you and within all things. Do you really want to become a better golfer, or are you just venting? The first place to begin is to set a powerful intention and ask, or declare, or intend. It’s where dreams may come and hearts desires flow from. Instead of show me and I will believe it, you must believe it and you will see it. Incredible paradigm shifts will begin to show up in your life on and off the golf course once you fully commit and play full out in being a leading edge, deliberate creator.
“Until one is committed, there is a hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now,” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Here’s how it works. You ask, you declare, you intend, you commit (Step 1) The Universe always answers with a YES – Your Wish is Your Command, even when you shout NO at something (Step 2), now it is your job to allow it in (Step 3), simple…yet very profound. What happens next is up to you. For whatever you resist, persists. Whatever resistance comes up is “your” next lesson. If you have fully committed and played full out you will understand, begin to notice, become aware of how everything changes and shifts occur. If you are simply giving this lip service, and most of you will, then your dream will shrivel back into the soil from whence it sprang, and you may declare that this doesn’t work. Either way, you’re both right.
Here’s another nugget – Whatever kind of golfer you are intending to be – Be as you wish to seem. In other words, act as if it is already so. You will gravitate towards your hearts desire. Be both hungry and humble as you allow this powerful life force to work to you and through you. Give credit and be grateful to where it is really coming from – All That Is.
Feeling stuck – give me a call.
How’s Your Golf Game?
How’s your golf game?
Go ahead and answer truthfully and honestly.
Post your answers on my blog site www.GolfIsSupposedToBeFun.com and I will follow up with you and YOU will become a better golfer because of it!
Rory Wins the 2011 US Open
Congratulations to Rory McIlroy on winning The US Open. McIlroy quoted Muhammad Ali, saying: “It’s repetition of affirmations that leads to belief — and once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.”
Rory spoke with Jack Nicklaus on what it takes to finish the deal. Jack coached him by asking Rory certain questions, like, “What did you learn from the last nine holes at Augusta?”
It’s refreshing to watch a new humble and hungry superstar in the making! It’s refreshing to watch someone with a bounce in their step who doesn’t waste much time over the ball.
Sometimes it’s an inspiring to quote, a solid sounding board to propel you to the next level.
“Be as you wish to seem,” Socrates
Acceptance Leads To Playing Better Golf
In order for one to more fully advance and evolve in quantum leaps to their next level of fuller expression and potential on the golf course, one must embrace exactly where they are. Let me repeat that again – One Must Embrace Exactly Where They Are.
One must embrace their level of play: their fears, their strengths, and the things they can do to improve upon. The place to begin is exactly where you are right now, without any hidden self-deception, denial, or “should be” mentality.
If you’re always struggling in a way that you “should be” better than you are, it’s like the dog always chasing its tail. You’ll never get there. If you’re always seeking to impress another with your anger after a less than stellar golf shot, because you think you are “better than you are”…again you stay stuck in the vicious never-ending cycle of not getting any better.
It is only when you fully begin to “let go” of this self-deceptive mentality and begin to accept yourself and be exactly as you are that a light, a relief, a feeling of peace will “perhaps” enter your experience if you are willing to let it in, unless you don’t.
I cannot tell how many times I observe others, myself included for most of my life, getting all worked up and upset on the golf course because I “should be” better than this.
I recall a round of golf not too many years ago where a friend of mine, Jack, came off the 9th green at Petoskey Bay-View Country Club exasperated after shooting 44, “I’m an 8-handicap golfer and I don’t shoot this!” Steam was literally coming out of Jack’s ears on the 10th tee – it was difficult to even talk with him; it spoiled the rest of his round. As for me, he was my partner, and our team ended up losing a couple bucks to our playing partners.
See how it works? This “should be” attitude translates into more and more negative frustration. One cannot play their best golf when they’re mad, angry, upset, or disappointed. Period!
“It is only when we have the courage to face things exactly as they are, without any self-deception or illusion, that a light will develop out of events, by which the path to success may be recognized.”
I Ching: Hexagram 5, Hsu – Waiting (Nourishment)
Once we have an acceptance, an integrity and authenticity within to face things exactly as they are…then can we begin the process of moving into setting powerful intentions by living the life of our dreams, both on and off the golf course.
Therefore, welcome it all into your experience and simply let go of any emotionally charged emotion. And you will know exactly why you received this message today!
The One Who Wins
“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”
–Henry Ford.
The one who wins is always the one who is clearest about his wanting and is most expectant of it. This is law without exception. She prevails because The Universe only knows whatever it is being asked, or desired deep from within – and this vibration within never lies. It is law. If you are scared you gravitate toward that. If you think you can’t, you won’t. If you doubt your abilities, if you are tentative you will reap whatever you are sowing. If you get angry, throw clubs, you take yourself further away from being in The Zone. If you don’t know what you desire, you end up getting that as well. Likewise, if you visualize and see your shot, and you just know you’re hitting a great shot (expect it), you’ll produce the swing and the result. That’s called eagerly anticipating, being on fire, or like Tom Watson likes to say, “licking my chops.” Why not experience more of the good stuff on the golf course? You can if you think you can.
The Universe only responds to our own vibrational energy within. Therefore, it pays to be clear, to set clear intentions, and certainly expect, believe, and know it shall be. Like Nick Faldo likes to say, “We gravitate toward the picture we are painting.” We become what we think. What script has been playing over and over in your mind, in your world, along the fairway of life? Change is an eternal process. You can get back in the game, or you can stay stuck in the mediocrity of your own self-imposed, limited belief comfort zone.
Solution: In order to break free from your own self-imposed comfort zone – and that’s where true growth begins – at the end of your comfort zone, one must choose change, one must choose to be uncomfortable, one must feed the subconscious mind with a new script, a new program that eventually squeezes out the old program that is no longer serving our best interest. You’ve got to deposit more and more of these “new” beneficial beliefs into the treasury of your subconscious mind, which runs 95% of your life. Your conscious mind a mere 5% or less. Will this new adventure be nothing but a bed of roses? Absolutely not! You will most likely venture into the juicy depths, coming face to face with all your demons. Most give up at the first sight of uneasiness when going within. It’s scary to go within. It is the most scary and the most liberating experience of all. So you can choose to play it safe or climb down the rabbit hole and take yourself to as far as you desire. Either way, it’s your call. What do you desire to be next?
Another simple, yet intriguing concept along the fairway of life is in understanding what exactly is going on here? First of all, life just is. Second of all, golf just is. There is only one thing really going on. You are playing a game of golf that man invented. You are hitting a little white ball down a fairway onto a green and putting a little white ball into a hole. That’s it. Nothing more. Now, you can certainly choose to enjoy your experience, to enjoy nature, to enjoy your camaraderie, to have fun and give thanks, to become better than you used to be – no better than anyone else, or not?
In the metaphysical world, the way life really is, as opposed to how you think it is, has no idea what competition is. Competition – truly is not. However, it is man who makes up the rules to the game, the prizes, trophies, medals, or money; man provides the platform to play the game, especially when it comes to tournament play. We put ourselves into a position where there is only one prize. Whereas, (in ultimate reality), there are plenty of prizes to go around. If there is any value in competition it is the stimulating of our own wanting and desires. There is incredible value through our role models in the golf arena; they inspire us to become better than we used to be – to rise up to our fuller potential, to push ourselves into becoming our own hearts desire(s). You are your own toughest opponent and that is whom you are always playing against and within.
So, let’s take a more succinct look at the statement: The one who wins is always the one who is clearest about his wanting and is most expectant of it.
The one is anyone and everyone.
Always means it is law, and it never fails.
Clearest is a mindset of understanding, a feeling of being.
Wanting is a hearts desire.
Expectant is a knowing, and a feeling that it shall be.
Here is another simple truth that may just spark a knowing, an understanding within you – that will allow you to get back on track in this manifesting game. Many human beings have simply given up on wanting because they have not received. The reason they have not received is because deep down underneath they have been given their attention to the lack of what they have wanted rather than to what they have wanted. When you give attention to the lack of what you don’t have – you get that too! The Universe responds equally to what you really, really want and what you really, really don’t want.
Examples of conflicting wanting / asking:
I want to have more money. I can’t stand being broke.
I want to play well; I don’t want to be scared.
I want to win this tournament, but I always seem to choke coming down the stretch.
I was playing so well, how come I end up choking?
I want to be a better golfer, but I’m not very good.
I’m a good range player, how come I can’t take it to the course?
I play well by myself, and I tense up around others.
I’m not a very good golfer.
There are literally thousands of scripts within your subconscious mind that is playing itself out time after time within the confines of your own brain. If you want to change, you’ve got to start writing a new script.
Mental Technique: Focus those last five minutes before bed on good feeling thoughts and what you do want. You marinate on what you are giving your attention, focus, visualization, and imagination upon. See your self as you desire to be. Socrates said, “Be as you wish to seem.”
Enjoy the process of co-creating your own reality.
-
THE FAIRWAY OF LIFE e-zine + Bonus
Simple Secrets to Playing Better Golf
By Going With The Flow ~ Newsletter
+ Bonus
First Two Chapters of
"The Fairway Of Life"We respect your privacy!