There is such a thing as trying too hard
“Lighten up Rand you’re taking this way too serious,” Neale Donald Walsch.
It’s true I was taking my spirituality way too seriously. You know what, I’ve been taking my life way too seriously too. Come to think about it, I’ve been taking my golf way too serious as well. Too much uptight overly intense emotion or mood on the golf course is basically an expression of fear. It keeps us tight, free from expressing our full artistic potential. It also takes further away from The Zone. We’ve projected ourselves into the future (thinking and worrying about outcome) and out of the present moment, where focus and excellence abounds. One of the characteristics of being in The Zone is being present right here and right now.
This phenomenon known as being in the present moment, staying loose, free to fully express oneself, giving ones best effort in the here and now is exactly what Captain Paul Azinger was able to pull off with his players at the Ryder Cup. It certainly didn’t hurt having a Boo Weekly around telling of his orangutan story or galloping down the first fairway like Happy Gilmore. The team stayed present and focused and away from being too overly intense, a trying too hard to make it happen versus relaxing, having fun, and allowing it to happen. Did I mention that Captain Azinger also hired Ron Braund, a life coach to guide the way and support this intention?
Think about it. When do you play your best golf? When you are trying too hard, pressing to make it happen or when you are enjoying the moment and allowing it to happen? Are you taken it too serious or are you having fun? Too often I find myself getting all uptight and tense over what?
I invite you to find a new thought that will lighten you up. Reach for a better feeling thought. ‘Hey, I’m with my friends it’s a beautiful day. This isn’t life or death out there. My wife is still going to kiss me when I come home. Might as well relax into this…after all, golf is supposed to be fun.’ The moment you shed that weight will be the moment you begin playing well again. Why not start sooner! Just be who you really are. Embrace the highs and lows along the fairway of life for this too shall come to pass.
Life and Golf are supposed to be fun – right now!
Embrace the highs and lows along the fairway of life, give appreciation and gratitude along your stroll, and be happy right now – no matter what? Why, because life is unfolding perfectly just the way it is. Sometimes I like to think perfectly imperfect just the way it is. Nevertheless, when you go back and connect the dots to your life and golf, you too will understand why it is you went through the challenges you did, and how wonderful that really was for the agenda and growth of your soul.
In other words, can I take the punch in the gut (a ball hit out of bounds, in the weeds, picker bushes, tall rough, thick trees, 3 putts, dubbed chips, bad break, choked down the stretch, and on and on) and still feel good? If you can’t then that’s the problem – and what you resist, persists. Once this concept begins to sink deeply into the depths of your soul, your life and golf will never be the same ever again. Everything changes with this new perspective. And guess what…shhh…there will be fewer times where you actually do take the punch in the gut, which means you will get more of what you really do want more often then every before.
Likewise when things are going along extremely well and you begin to feel that extra stress and pressure to keep on performing outside your comfort zone, can you still feel good and embrace the present moment? By the way – I work directly with individuals about lowering their comfort zone - more about all of that later.
Here’s the key to getting what you want. First you have to know what you want. And the only way to know what you really want is to know yourself. And the only way to know yourself is to be yourself. And the only way to be yourself is to listen to your heart and feelings – the language of your soul. Isn’t that something, be who you really are – how simple, how profound. What I do is coach, guide, and support others in removing the blocks, obstacles, or resistances that lie in the way to The Zone – the going with the flow. If you can tell me what you want, I can show you how to get it.
Back to being happy right now. My mentor, Neale Donald Walsch recently stated, “On this day of your life, dear friend, I believe God wants you to know…that you can be happy right here, not tomorrow, not in ten minutes, but now. You can be happy right now. Byron Katie said that, and she is right. Happiness is allowing yourself to be okay with what is, rather than wishing for, and bemoaning, what is not. Obviously, what is is what is supposed to be, or it would not be. The rest is just you, arguing with life. Somewhere along the way you will have to learn to just Trust Life. (Read that, “Trust God.”) Why not start today?”
Trust life and let life know that it can trust you.
Once you learn to just trust life that it is unfolding perfectly imperfect just the way it is, you can then move from what-is to what-is becoming or what you prefer. The moment you embrace the opposite of who you really are is the moment you evolve in quantum leaps to what we do prefer. Because if we keep giving our attention to what-is then we keep regurgitating the same story over and over again. It’s why Tiger is constantly thinking about becoming even better. I invite you to do the same.
Embrace what-is, be happy now, and eagerly anticipate what-is becoming, what you prefer to be next. Point yourself, your kayak downstream into the direction of your dreams. Got it?
The first two questions must be answered in this order, followed by the third:
1) Who am I?
2) Where am I going? And finally…
3) Who’s coming with me?