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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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FacebookSelf-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 Vibration Comes First
The Vibration comes first! First, “we” must be a thing called happy, clear, or wise - then we will do and have all that we wanted. In other words first BE as you wish to seem. Be the kind of golfer, or father, or mother, or life’s purpose, you desire. Act as if it is so. Thinking only about what-is, keeps giving you more of what-is. If you keep thinking what you have always thought you will keep getting what you have always gotten. Change your thoughts and you change your life. Changing your thoughts will change the programming of the trillions of individual cells within your body.
The key is to offer a vibration that matches your desire, your intention, your dream rather than matching what-is. Our work is to align with what we prefer and gravitate toward that. As soon as we point in that direction we literally make peace with ourselves and we feel good in our NOW. Stop paddling so hard against the current, drop the oars, and go with the flow. Many will think this is just lazy. It takes hard work to get you to where you are going. I say the joy on the journey is what it is all about. Yes, it really is that easy. But most will think the prize comes to all those who struggle really, really hard. Or they say you’ll get your reward in heaven. All this is; is a common belief that is so prevalent in our society.
Many will say give me what I want, then I’ll be happy. Again, it doesn’t work that way. Be happy and you will take inspired action and almost magically you will have what you have wanted all along.
The ones who truly achieve success do so through the amount of joy they feel on their journey toward the picture or vision they are painting. Yes, you will practice on the things you can improve, but it will be through the joy of the adventure, not the drudgery of the battle. What you visualize your desire; you set the vibration of your intention into motion. You literally gravitate toward living the life of your dreams.
It’s all in the vibration we are offering inside…and our vibrations never lie. What we are manifesting on the outside is a direct match to what we are experiencing on the inside. It’s all about our internal vibration. The Vibration of being and creating comes first!
All of this is meant to free you from the limited belief and self-imposed comfort zone of mediocrity we have all settled for. It’s time to start telling ourselves a new story – one in which we are the masters of our universe. You cannot get rid of a negative thought – you can only begin with more beneficial beliefs that support you. Eventually the negative thoughts begin fading away scarcely remembering they even existed in the first place. The way we re-program our old self-image is to keep depositing more and more beneficial beliefs into the treasury of our subconscious mind.
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!
Tiger Did It Again
“I’d say, ‘Tiger, I promise you,’” Earl says as we look upon his son’s unmistakably steely gaze, ‘“ That you’ll never meet another person as mentally tough as you in your entire life.’ And he hasn’t. And he never will.” To view this Nike TV commercial click Nike’s Website.
Tiger did it again. What an incredible show, perhaps his greatest golf tournament to date. He etched his U.S. Open victory into the laurels of all eternity to inspire all humanity throughout the world to new levels of consciousness. Nike and Pops and Michael Jordan were all correct with their thinking that Tiger will do more for the game of golf and life than Jordan did for basketball – and I thought that would be an unattainable feat, and he will do more to inspire humanity because of his golfing skills.
The good news is what lies within Tiger lies within all of us as well. Ali understood this power (I am the greatest of all time), so did Andrew Carnegie, JFK, Gandhi, and Napolean Hill – the father of personal growth, among many others like Lord Buddha, Lord Krishna, and Lord Jesus. “For you too shall do all of these things and more.” There’s only one way to go – and that’s up! We all can develop and harness this energy even more than ever before – it’s a simple matter of belief, connecting with our authentic (higher) Self, and evolving our consciousness within. Tiger understands what’s it like to be a spiritual being and so can you.
The greatest discovery in the 20th century can be summed up in five simple, yet oh so powerful words – We Become What We Think. Tiger is becoming what he thinks, and he thinks and desires to become even better. Thoughts create swings and everything else. In order to play like a champion, you’ve got to first think like one. Whatever we feed into our conscious mind (thoughts, dreams, goals, intentions), and allow to filter in, take root, and implant and imprint into our subconscious mind (our self-image belief system) becomes our comfort zone, which runs everything in our life: relationships; health; money; God (spirituality); career; fun; leisure; yes even our golf game. It is as simple and as complex as that.
Although it might appear that the rest of us mere mortals are so far behind the eight ball, after all, Tiger received this understanding right from the get-go through Mom and Pops, not to mention how gifted he is…yet we all can develop and take back our own power within. What else is there, throw in the towel and settle for mediocrity? Never. What lies within another, what you see and project in another, lies within all of us. It’s time to recreate yourself anew building a winner’s or champion’s self-image becoming the grandest version of the greatest vision ever you held about who you really are. Wake up! It all starts with a thought, an intention, a dream. Isn’t it about time to revisit your dreams and have one – ones that uplifts, inspires, and empowers you to enjoy life, to be happy now, and to play inspired golf with outrageous joy!
Learn to intuitively align yourself and connect with this Source Energy, this Well-Being stream that is always flowing to you and through you. In life we call it going with the flow. In golf we call it The Zone.
Warmly,
Rand Marquardt
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