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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 
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FacebookPutting To Nowhere
When you are playing or putting your best there is an almost magically effortless stroke. It is as natural as walking or driving your car without thinking. The same can be said about drinking a glass of water. There is no conscious effort to pick up the glass, hold it in your hand, lift your arm, tilt your head, or even swallow, and then to set it down on the counter softly. No, it’s completely natural and effortless. And believe it or not, when you are putting your best you’re not even thinking about it.
Remember when Hardy made the putt in Bagger Vance in the scene at night? He simply let it happen. I’m inviting you to practice more of the same. Obviously, you’ll read your putt. You’ll see the line. You’ll feel the distance. You will take in all the elements such as grain, speed, break, conditions, etc. – your body will process this in a matter of seconds. You’ll go through your normal practice routine. You’ll align your putter blade…and (here’s the secret), just prior to executing…relax, be present, and simply putt to nowhere, which also stands for now here. While the wisdom of your body will be putting to the target, the feeling is a putting to nowhere, giving your best effort, but effortless. All your focus is in the now - head down, eyes over the ball, feeling the line, and distance, shoulders, arms, and hands swinging naturally, almost pendulum like. There’s no flinching or sudden jerk, or any kind of tension whatsoever, just as natural as rolling a ball.
Putting to nowhere and now here are both one and the same. I am putting effortlessly feeling like I am putting to nowhere – even though my mind, body, and spirit have already calculated in everything in perfect harmony. All you have to do is get out of your own way and let it happen. Because if you try too hard to make it happen and want it so badly (too much future and result-oriented process), most likely peeking and coming out of your putt, you will end up pushing it further away. Likewise, if you have past thoughts of previous failure you are also out of the present moment of now. Playing present golf means you are now here in this moment, the only moment you will ever have. Here are the three keys to successful putting:
1. Seek joy first
2. You are now here
3. Putt to nowhere
Practice and remember these three concepts, especially integrating the concept of seeking joy and having fun first, and all the growth you could ever imagine will come joyously and abundantly into your life. Stop taking it so serious, and start having more fun! I guarantee your putting will improve and after it is all said and done so will your scores. Embrace watching your handicap drop. In fact, set an intention to play better golf (stretch your comfort zone) and you will.
Divine Feelings in 2009 - Part I
Okay, so you’ve got your vision or New Years golf resolution picture clearly painted in your minds eye, and you’ve declared out loud in front of others what you truly desire to be as a golfer this coming year; a lower handicap, more free to express yourself, break 90 on a consistent basis, a better putter, or world’s #1. You have haven’t you? Declaring out loud in front of another sets this whole process (commitment) of Providence (divine inspiration) into motion. Without a direction we become like the ship without a rudder. Reflect upon the wisdom of Albert Einstein, “Imagine your ideal future. Your imagination is your preview to life’s coming attractions.” You will become what you think about. You will gravitate towards the desire of your highest ambition. The mystery is solved when you decide to choose these things rather than waiting to someday discover them by chance. Remember the ending of this quote largely attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “…Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”
Kenny Perry, a PGA Tour veteran even surprised himself with doing some goal setting in 2008 by achieving his goal of being on the Ryder Cup team, saying something to the affect (paraphrasing), ‘Perhaps there is something here, something more to take a look at…’ Yes Kenny, you achieved because you put your mind and commitment upon this intention and believed it to be so. What’s new for 2009?
You see this first step is what keeps so many stuck in the same comfort zone rut year after year. While this concept seems so simple most golfers have no idea where they are going with their golf game, yet alone where they are going in life and the evolution and agenda of their soul. Most golfers think struggle and hard work on the range and body position is the key to a good golf game. I agree that practice and range work is part of this process, however I would replace the concept of struggle with allowing it to be. I also invite my students to first set an intention or a New Years golf resolution first. For a current review of creating a New Years golf resolution please read my last blog dated 12/30/08 to get yourself up to speed with this vital first step…then you will begin your journey by taking action and life will unfold as easily and as logically as Spock might say, ‘My calculations tell me that if you just take the next logical step you will 100% achieve the results you desire.’ All life is asking and all you are asking of yourself is just taking the next logical step. And when we do this we naturally allow the process to unfold in perfect timing. This is The Secret of the universe. It’s called The Law of Attraction – that which is likened unto it self is drawn. We Become What We Think.
The Secret (or the answer and wisdom) lies within you. It is the alignment with who you really are. It is the connection with Source Energy that allows the flow of Well-Being. It is this alignment and connection that is sought after by all. It is these expressions of alignment of Well-Being and this connection with life that we all desire to experience. It is the key to our peace, happiness, and joy within. Success is actually the amount of joy that we feel. What is it that you wish to be and feel? What state of beingness most inspires you? Go straight into being and feeling that both in life and on the golf course.
Another way to describe this alignment and connection is what are these feelings or expressions do you most desire to align with? What divine feeling do you want to explore or align with this coming year? What is the feeling, the frequency, or vibration? What is this energy that most resonates within your soul? Please take a moment to reflect and journal about this energy and this feeling.
What is this feeling? How will this feeling serve to make the dream (your dream) of the sacred universe come true? How does this feeling serve the greater whole?
* Help those around you?
* Heal your own heart?
* Make me a better me?
* Stretch beyond your comfort zone? Take risks? Color outside the box?
* Play golf & life like it is meant to be – for FUN!
* Step into the calling and next highest demonstration of your soul?
* Listen to the agenda of your soul. What the soul is after is the highest expression of who you really are. Feelings are the language of the soul. What is this feeling?
* How will this or these feeling(s) allow you to recreate yourself anew? And…
* “Become the grandest version of the greatest vision ever you have held about who you really are,” Neale Donald Walsch?
We all have these feelings, these levels of consciousness and connection with All That Is, this vibrational energy when we align with the frequency that resonates within our soul right inside us all the time. You see frustration and anxiety comes from not listening to one’s soul. Our job, therefore, is to align with our higher Self and these divine feelings and activate them. Think of it as a wake up call. Many of us have been going through life in a slumber sleep walk being tossed and reacting to life here and there as it unfolds as if it is by default, now I am asking you and reminding you to simply wake up again and choose to create intentionally. Wake up to the highest most divine expression of who you really are. Your soul has brought you to what you are being right now. Jesus described it this way, “Once I was lost and now I am found.” What is the divine feeling of being found?
…Stay tuned for the second half of this story
The Better It Gets…The Better It Gets
Tiger Woods is on a mission to become the greatest golfer and champion of all time. A major mindset for him is 19. That’s 19 majors golf championships – one better than the great champion golfer, Jack Nicklaus. Tiger currently stands at number 14. Tiger also talks about getting better all the time. What he did yesterday is gone. He has an intense desire to become better than he used to be. He talks openly about his desire.
The biggest point around this discussion of getting better is the better it gets the better it really does get. When these new positive focus and belief thoughts filter deeply into our subconscious mind we really do gravitate toward and become our new thoughts. Yes, thoughts create things and thoughts create swings. We Become What We Think. That’s the mental game of golf – “The five-inch space between the ears,” Bobby Jones. As you gravitate and fine tune your thoughts upon all the good things you desire the better it really does get. Our success is measured by the amount of joy we feel around these thoughts about who we are, our self-image, which is lodged deeply into our subconscious mind.
Our subconscious mind runs everything in our life, including our golf game. Whatever we feed, supplant, imprint, and deposit into the treasury of our subconscious mind we become. Our subconscious mind is like a computer processing its program to a tee, all the way through our entire round…shot after shot…season after season. It’s like a plane on automatic pilot fulfilling its final destination. It’s like the student in school getting grades based upon what she believes is her comfort zone. It’s like the salesman who sells only so many policies or trinkets. We don’t deviate too much from this self-image we have allowed to exist in our subconscious mind, unless we change our thoughts and create more of a champion’s self-image. And whenever we do deviate some, most of us end up right back on track in no time at all, unless we allow a new belief to take root and grow. We’ve all settled for less, for mediocrity all because of our own self-limited belief system that we have allowed to exist. And if being mediocre doesn’t make you slightly upset, then perhaps this kind of message is just not for you? I know I was a tad upset with myself when I found out that I had settled for less. Who wants to be mediocre? Who wants to become their personal best?
So, the obvious question is how do I change my set point of perspective, my comfort zone and belief I have about myself, and my golf game? Change your thoughts and create a new belief about yourself, gradually shrinking or clearing an old belief that is no longer serving you. You’ve got to activate new and more beneficial beliefs giving more air time to that. Just thinking about what you don’t want, or how to deactivate a less than desirable vibration, only draws more of that into your experience. Our work is to feed our subconscious mind more and more beneficial beliefs and focus. Then, you will see that the better it gets…the better it gets.
Tiger is doing it all the time. He wants to get even better, so he thinks better feeling thoughts. And the better it gets, the better it gets. Eventually, you’ll forget about how things used to be, or that things are just the way they are. Instead of thinking it is what it is…move into a new focus and a more positive belief about what it is you prefer – you literally recreate yourself anew. You move from what-is to what it is you are becoming, what you prefer. It is a simple and as complex as that! And if you do not believe it, then that’s the problem. I’ll show you how to do this and break down any resistances you have that may be preventing you from playing full out to your full potential. That’s the mental, emotional, and spiritual side of golf and life. Ohm…
If you truly do want to change for the better you’ve got to change your thoughts around it. If you keep thinking about that this is just the way it is, or you never get any better, then it will be. You’ve fulfilled the self-fulfilling prophecy. You’ll keep regurgitating the same old story. Therefore create a new story and evolve to getting better than you used to be. You’ve got to think like a Tiger. You’ve got to start thinking like a champion. It works for us mere mortals and amateurs too!
Recognizing Communication Breakdown in Golf & Life
There are so many things in life and golf to be grateful for and of course so many things to be disheartened by. There are always things we are working on to fix, change, and become better at, and there are other things we have very little control over, like our club head speed, which determines our distance – it’s a physics thing you know, something we can learn to accept and embrace. New technology will take us only so far. But today I want to bring to your attention something that we all can work on that will not only change the lives of those around us but will change our lives as well. “What’s that?” you might ask. Well, I will tell you — it is the way that we communicate.
The way we ask questions, give answers, listen, and share information can make someone’s day or it can ruin it. I’m sure you had someone say something to you regarding your golf game or some other negative comment that took the spirit right out of your sails. These upsetting moments plant seeds of low self-esteem into the very fabric of our subconscious minds – before too long we begin to believe and live this lie.
Have you ever asked yourself, ‘How am I showing up on the golf course? How am I communicating with others?’ You know you can learn an awful lot about a person by playing a round of golf with them. And you can learn an awful lot about yourself. I know you’ve recognized certain empowering aspects (gratitude, focus, mental toughness, joy, love) and less than desirable traits (anger, frustration, fear, insecurity, hate) in another. Yet have you really gone inside and observed how you are showing up as well. What we do to another we do to ourselves. What we do to ourselves we do to another. Golf on the fairway of life becomes a circle. The Secret is the law of attraction. We become what we think.
I invite you to become fully present and really observe yourself in how you are communicating with yourself and with others. If you find yourself beating up on yourself just close your eyes for a moment and ask yourself, “What hidden thought or belief have I been unaware of that affects my communications?” When you get in touch with your communications and their consequences, be gentle on yourself. Beating up on ourselves will not make us better communicators. In fact, it will do just the opposite.
Begin to notice right now the communications that you have received or ones that you have delivered that no longer serve your best interest and one by one release them and be grateful in becoming a better you. If there is someone to apologize too, say you are sorry with a compassionate heart and with true intention. Finally watch and observe your thoughts and the words you speak and replace them with a new more empowering self-talk, belief and focus. Sweeten your delivery and bring more awareness to each moment like a champion – you might just end up playing like one!
Think, talk, play, and carry yourself like a champion – Today!
Rand S. Marquardt, Author
Performance Enhancement Coach
Specializing in the Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Aspects of Golf
www.golfissupposedtobefun.com
(231) 838-5433
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