Take a walk through a city golf coursein Texas, Florida, California or anywhere else in the world, you will find a number of golf enthusiasts honing their skills. You may find them in groups golfing out with their buddies or alone practicing the swings and putts. By end of the day when they leave the course, they learn one of the most essential lessons in life, ‘play the ball where it lies’. Yes – that is how the game of golf is played. But life has similar such instances, where you need to deal with a situation from the existing state without any chances of skipping it. And just like golf, if you have taken the accurate decision at the right time, you can handle the situation easily.
You might have been told that swimming teaches the skill of leadership and soccer teaches cooperative skill. Through this blog, you will learn how a game of golf teaches five most important lessons in life.
Lesson One – Stay Focused
Even after the long hours of intense practice, it may happen that you had a bad day at the golf course. You missed the easiest shots and found it hard to deal with the fairways or your swings were wrong.
You can come across similar such situations in your life. Here is an example. You prepare yourself thoroughly for an interview and arrive right on time, but in the end, the interview committee rejects you. And, you are left wondering, what went wrong? Anything could have gone wrong, but what really matters is you focus on what you can and should do next.
That’s what golf teaches you to do.
You expected the practice sessions to make you perfect and put you ahead of the others, but that didn’t happen. On the D-Day you couldn’t hit the shots the way you wanted and you could do nothing about it. What’s the takeaway? You cannot control a situation, but have to focus and work hard again. If your practice is not paying off, then you need to make some changes in your approach, without getting frustrated. May be you have to refine your shots and focus on range during the practice sessions. The same applies in your everyday life. Do not get bogged down with failures, find out the mistakes and improve those skills.
Lesson Two – Live in the Present Moment
Of course, we all love to look into our future hoping to live affluent fulfilling life or lift up a championship trophy – SOMEDAY!
It is hard to stop yourself from dreaming about that perfect future, but it is equally important to live the present moment, whether you are playing golf or a role in life. It is imperative to understand why you should not get carried away. Think of this situation. You are standing on hole 5 and thinking about how to deal with hole 16. If you keep on thinking like this, chances are, your current putt isn’t going in.
Do you know why? Because, you are not living in the present moment and not giving the existing situation the value it requires.
The same applies to everyday life. If you are hoping to increase your salary, you need to focus on your existing tasks. If you want to give your child a happy life, you need to make yourself available to your kid. Your performance depends on how you have immersed yourself in the existing task. So, realize the importance of the present moment and your future will definitely be secure.
Lesson Three – Accept Change
Change is the only constant thing in life – accept it and everything will be easy for you.
But it’s easier said than done. How can golf help us in this context? Here’s how.
You may have developed a style of playing but after a period, it will be redundant and you will have to modify and adapt to the changed situation. You cannot afford to restrict yourself to one style, if you wish to evolve and grow, and become a flexible player.
The same notion applies to life. You cannot hold on to your beliefs and thoughts, rather go with the ebbs and flows, and learn from the changes.
Lesson Four – Be Strategic
If you want to win a golf game, you need a plan to play. First, you need to know the nature of the course, its challenges, and loopholes. Once you are familiar with the course, making a strategy will become easy because you already know what club you need, how to swing it and how to face the daring shots.
Consider a situation in your life where you need to present yourself to a client and impress him. If you do not have a plan, you will definitely fail in the course of action. But, if you have done your homework and planned a strategy, impressing the client will not be difficult.
Lesson Five – We All Have Bad Days
Even after winning 14 professional major golf championships, Tiger Woods has been through some of his worst years. He took a break from his golfing career from December 2009 to early April 2010. But that has not stopped him from doing what he loves the most.
Ups and downs are part and parcel of life. These add spice and make living more interesting. Good times are always followed by bad times; this is the cycle of life and we have to accept it. We need to learn from the mistakes and prepare ourselves to perform better.
The next time you tee off at a Texas City golf course, just remember how much this game is contributing to your life both on the course and off it. Once you realize this, you will fall in love with the sport all over again. Just as you need the right club to play a particular hole in golf, you need the right attitude and plan to sail through life. Golf is not just a game. It can be your friend, philosopher and guide, if you pay attention.