Craig Sigl Blog

I remember the days when I would get so angry with myself when I would miss a shot or an easy putt. I would just be fuming inside and obviously could not play my best on the next shot in that state. I wanted so badly to do well on the scorecard and beat my buddies. When I did, the satisfaction was tremendous. Ooops, there I go again, using another “feeling” word - satisfaction.

Being able to bounce back from mistakes…and we all know golf is a game of mistakes…is crucial to your scoring. It’s at the heart of Tiger’s mental toughness. We’ve all seen him in trouble after a bad shot and then he somehow comes out of it and puts himself back in a great position.

The standard advice given out there these days is that you: 1. Make a mistake 2. Go back to your instructor or swing program to identify the error. 3. Hit a zillion golf balls on the range to ingrain the countermove to cure that swing error.

You might have already tried that and found that it’s like herding cats because every time you fix one problem, another one comes up.  That’s because you’ve related the effect to a false cause.

If you’ve been with me for any amount of time, you know that I’m not going to be writing here, that to solve your golf problems, you just need to spend more time practicing and beating balls. And I’m not going to disappoint you with this article either. Rather, I’m going to talk about why that REALLY happens to you and what to do about them.

Let’s get down to what I believe is the REAL cause of most of your inconsistency troubles and here it is:

MEANING

Why do you think all the golf psychologists tell you to Focus on the present and the process?  Does that advice work? Yes, absolutely.  But it misses the mark. What focusing on the process does for you is it “Distracts” you away from MEANING. It’s just a good workaround for the true cause. It’s a heck of a lot harder to teach someone how to Focus than what you’ll learn below…especially for highly sensitive people.  Keep reading…

What?

As usual, I come from a different place than most golf teachers and yes, this is leading somewhere…that just might be profound for you.

You see, we get negative or difficult emotions like FEAR and DOUBT on the course and everywhere because of the MEANING our unconscious mind is currently assigning to the situation at hand. When that turns into a FEELING in your body, it messes up your swing or putting stroke.

For example, in the past, when I missed a 3 footer with my buddies, my unconscious mind assigned a MEANING to that event that “I choke under pressure” and/or “I’ll never get good at this game” or something like those.   How did that happen?  Well, it starts with the first time you ever played golf or maybe even another type of competition when you were younger. That MEANING gets reinforced over time because our mind always seeks to affirm what it already knows.

When you are a child and these things happen, the MEANING you give to yourself the first time tends to sink swiftly and deeply into your unconscious mind because you have little to no filter or perspective about the event.  The gateway to your unconscious mind is wide open.

Every time you choke under pressure from then on, the MEANING is recalled for that type of event and then the unconscious mind releases a chemical that creates the difficult emotion.That molecule of emotion, called  a peptide, is a messenger to the cells in your body telling them to do something…that something is a FEELING.

The FEELING is something like: “the shakes” or “nervousness” or other types of tension. Your reptilian mind starts to kick into gear at this time and actually hampers your ability to think correctly. All it’s thinking is survival. Your fine motor muscle movements are now not working so well because it’s the big muscles that need to work in survival mode and take over.

You already know how the most subtle changes and adjustments in a swing or a putt can drastically change the direction or distance on a stroke right?  It  takes so little to throw off your swing or cause a slight twist of your club or putterhead.

Golf isn’t a game of inches, it’s a game of millimeters or even smaller when it comes down to you…the player.

You’ve been taught that the cause is something labelled: “mechanical.” In some situations, that could be correct but for the vast majority of problems with golfers who already know the fundamentals and have hit great shots before, the real cause is the MEANINGs that we give to everything that ever happens to us. Those MEANINGS then trigger emotions.

“But Craig,” you might say, “I don’t FEEL bad before I miss those shots.”
I know, I get it. It’s not always something dramatic that you feel that knocks you off your game. Many times, it’s very subtle. It can be  simply injecting interference into your process. It’s like a radio signal getting jammed and coming to you as static noise.  What happens is that the unconscious mind does not get a clear message of what you want to have happen (can also be called lack of focus) or your conscious mind tries to take over the swing, can you say “STEERING” (which is like trying to ride a bike with your conscious mind directing your muscles).

Either way, when we dig and dig for the root cause, as I have done in my work with my golfers, you will find that it always comes down to MEANING that is stored at the unconscious level….and it may not have anything to do with golf whatsoever!

Ok then. What do we do about it? How do we fix that? I thought you’d never ask because you know that I don’t just give you the WHY and WHAT, I always give you the HOW because I personally need both to make changes in my game and elsewhere so I just figure that you do too.

Here’s what to do:

The next time you make an error or mistake on the course…(or even off the course), you want to immediately stop and ask yourself:

“What is it that I want right now” come up with a good answer that includes WHY you want to do that.

and then…

“What MEANING can I come up with for this mistake that will help me get what I want?”

and then…

“What is some proof or evidence that this MEANING I’ve given myself is true?

You want to do this when you are at the peak of your difficult emotions about the mistake. Why? Because when you are in any EMOTION, the gateway to your unconscious mind is open. This new MEANING has a very good chance of replacing the old meaning at the unconscious level. That’s where this whole process is regulated and where the change must occur.

In order to have new MEANINGs become permanent, and result in new feelings like: “I just feel like I can do anything out here,”  you have to get this into your unconscious programming.

The quickest, most efficient way to do that is through Hypnosis or other unconscious communication techniques. You won’t have to wait for your screwups in order to take advantage of the open gateway of high emotion.

You can certainly do this in your normal awake state as well and I would encourage you to do this kind of mental work off the course so that you automatically do it when on the course.

I find it interesting that serious golfers know that they have to practice their game to get better…and I’m all for that. But they don’t do the mental practice that it takes in order to allow all of that hard work to show itself in competition or under pressure.

If you’ve read this far, I’m thinking you’re not one of those golfers or are you?

Greens and fairways,

Craig

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To learn how to do self hypnosis, go to:

www.golfshortcutsecrets.com

To get useful MEANINGS into your unconscious mind and

delete the old ones, go to:

www.golfselfhypnosis.com

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You know, for years, I was locked into some patterns. The worst thing about that is, I didn’t know there was such a thing let alone that I was inside them. You don’t know what you don’t know right?  What do I mean by all of that? Well, I grew up with the idea that you go to school, work hard, do the right things by people, and that gets you ahead

(whatever that means).

I created something of a silo for myself with my choices of college major, career, and types of relationships. People tell you things as you grow up and if you trust those people or they are authority figures in your life…wham, they become your belief system…for many people, it stays that way until they die.

For instance, when I was married, I was told by my in-laws that they believed that “you choose your profession, you get good at it,  and you work until you retire. You get weekends and vacations off to go golfing or whatever, and that’s that.” Needless to say, my wife at the time was not too happy whenever I would talk about changing my career from Fedex. Fedex offered safety and security, a steady paycheck, medical benefits, etc.

But that job almost killed me. I’m going to tell you some parts of my story I haven’t written before here. During those years in my 30’s,  I”ve got a broken down body, I hate my job, I’m abusing alcohol and I’m shutting out my wife in our relationship because I don’t know how to deal with emotion.  I’m totally entrenched in my silo and doing everything I can to FORCE my programmed belief system to work for me and the harder I try, the worse it gets. I’m pounding in a square peg into a round hole.

Honest to gosh here, the only thing that knocked me into sense was pain that I finally could not take anymore plus the idea that I might literally be dying. I HAD to do SOMETHING!

I went to my doctor for a bronchial infection and back pain. After asking me a bunch of personal questions, he gave me a prescription for some antibiotics and “something else.”  He said he just wanted me to “try” these seratonin uptake inhibitors.  I said “what, aren’t those for depressed people, mentally ill people?”

He convinced me to experiment. After a couple weeks in a checkup, I went back and was doing much better on all fronts. Then, he asked me this question that was the turning point in my life:

“Now, what are you going to do to change your life?”

Clearly, what I was doing, was not working for me.  But I never knew I had the power to change. I just thought that this was the way it was supposed to be for me. I thought everyone had these troubles.

I thought so wrong…I could not see outside of my silo (maybe it’s a box for you)

I think that too many of us have too great of a tolerance for pain…

Anyway, to make the story short, I quit Fedex, started internet marketing, ended up getting divorced, became a hypnotherapist and now today, at 46, I’m happier and healthier than I’ve ever been. In the middle of all of that transformation, my golf game got good!  - Coincidence?  NO WAY!

You see, my doing all the things the golf instructors and magazines say and not getting anywhere was part of my overall silo. But I broke out of it… 

What’s the point of all of this and how does it relate to your golf game?

I was recently told by my business coach, Brendon Burchard, that the main thing that us teachers have to offer is…

Perspective

In other words, a look outside of our box, or silo that we have constructed around us for different areas of our life, and our game.  You can’t tell why your drives are hooking but your swing coach has a perspective to notice the mechanics of what you’re doing that sends it off track. That’s one way to fix it. I, on the other hand, would help you to simply go back to swinging the way you did that time you scored your best. You have those instructions inside you.

So…everything I’m doing here is basically like that. You might have noticed the pain of not playing golf like you know you can and so you go looking for answers.

I had been given one gift growing up that allowed me to finally escape the silo I had constructed. My parents were risk-takers and entrepreneurs. They also love to travel and see new things. The lessons I learned about going on adventures, trying new things and being curious saved me. My parents are no longer with us but I have a picture of them, in their 60’s, going whitewater rafting to remind me to always be open and to live!

The perspective I want to give you for your golf game and your life is this…

Every day, there’s a lot of brainwashing (hypnosis) going on with you and around you. Cultural, advertising, peers, and on and on. It has constructed and continues to reinforce your silo (or box).

YOU want to NOW WAKE UP and BE CONSCIOUS about everything you do from now on. YOU want to take control of the brainwashing process and immerse yourself in positive brainwashing. YOU want to be CURIOUS and OPEN about everything as in:  “I wonder how this can help me?”

YOU WANT to expand your vision of what you are capable of. YOU WANT to learn about how you operate and function in physical form and mental exercise.

Become a little adventureous yourself in this. Fun and passion do not go together with “stuck.”  Go into any new situation (especially perceived difficul ones)  with this idea: “I wonder what this will be like?”

I’m not telling you to totally let your guard down and open yourself to trouble or spending money on every golf gadget there is…not at all. You are smart and can keep your discernment at the same time.

If you’d have told me I would be a full-time hypnotist 10 years ago, I would have said “you’re crazy.”

You have already been doing hypnosis. Time to take control of the trance you already know how to do…

I’ve got an amazing lesson for you here today on getting consistent.

Start off by thinking about, or better yet, writing down your top 3 reasons
for why you play golf.

Go ahead and do this, it will be worth your while. Don’t read ahead until you
really do this, it will be worth it for you…

Ok, got that down?

I’ve had a number of clients in my office lately that are having trouble with consistency
for their game.  I ask them what they think about before, during, and after the round with
respect to their game.

I hear all sorts of answers for each person…

They mention these types of typical thoughts:

Before:

1. I need to get out and practice more
2. I wonder if I can beat my playing partner/rival/best score
3. Wish I could have holed that putt on the 14th hole

During:

1. This hole always gets me
2. This hole is my favorite
3. I need to get a new putter
4. I’m just not driving well today
5. I need this next shot/putt to shoot a ____

After:

1. If weren’t for that out of bounds drive on the 6th, I’d have shot a _____
2. Why can’t I put together 18 good holes when I can have 9 good ones?
3. If only I would have __________
4. Dang, I’m so angry that I ______
5. I did pretty well with my ________ game.

One of the biggest secrets to playing consistent golf is to think consistently.

Yeah, yeah, I know, you’ve all heard it before…”play one shot at a time”
Yes, that’s good advice but easier said than done.

Now, a little test for you…

What’s the consistent thinking among those types of comments above?
Haven’t figured it out yet?  I put a few zingers in there to get you really thinking.

It’s “judgement” or “comparing” that is the consistent thinking in the examples above.

What if your consistent thinking was centered around one of the top 3 reasons you
play golf instead?

Which of those would you like to have running through all of your thoughts throughout
your golf life, on and off the course?

Would you have more fun and enjoy the game more? Would that keep you calm and
in the flow more?

I’m not asking you to do anything crazy here. Just suggesting that you think about the
things that are most important to you about this amazing golf with everything you do.

When I ask a golfer, “why do you play golf?” I rarely hear “to score lower.” And if I do, I then ask
him “what does scoring lower get for you?”  And he will answer with some sort of response that it
feels great and he carries that great feeling with him all week long.

So, it’s not really the low score…it’s the great feeling that is at the heart of the motivation to golf.

What if you could feed the feeling first with consistent thinking? The scores would go down as
a side benefit…

Think about it…

Greens and fairways,

Craig

You want the ball to go straight. You take lessons to line up your body parts and you hit practice balls all day long to try to make this happen.  Just hit it straight dammit! Right?  I’m here to tell you that this is the essence of the game…stop confusing it all up and making it difficult.

I’m also constantly asked about how to get Focus into your game. Of course, I usually answer that the secret is to golf with your unconscious mind and have a system for playing that allows that to happen WHILE having fun.

The following is  a shortcut for you and it was sent to me by one of my clients.  See how this can apply to you. It could just solve a huge amount of your problems…he asked to remain anonymous….

Greens and fairways,

Craig

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Dear Craig,

I want to wake you up to something that very few golfers and instructors are aware of and even less teach you anything about how to deal with it…

stress kills not only your body, but your game. 
I’m always teaching my golfers and other athletes that the way you live is the way you play. The mental attitudes you practice at home and work are what you use at the course. Time after time we watch a great pro at the top of his game suddenly fall off the leaderboard for months or even years. When we read about him/her, we find out about marital problems, substance abuse (can you say John Daly) and other such issues off the course.

Athletes in my office all learn how to use the tools that they will use on the course at home and at work to prepare for that eventual pressure situation in competition. And by the way, competition also means competing with yourself for your best rounds.

This all reminds me of the days when I was a stressed-out manager at Fedex Express. It’s no wonder that I struggled for so long with golf while I was so poor at managing my life, especially with regards to stress. At the course, when I faced pressure, I tensed up and my body created anxiety over the putts I needed to make. That response worked great for work but not for my golf game. I didn’t know any different back then.  The inevitable choke followed that anxiety.

At that time, golf itself was a major stress reliever but I didn’t put two and two together that my stress load was actually part of the problem keeping me from reaching my golf goal of breaking 80. Looking back, I carried that stress in my body from work right on over to the course.

In many surveys, doctors are reporting around 80% of all patient visits are due to stress.
While I was struggling with my game, I was also struggling with marriage, finances, and of course, my career. I was sick a lot, had back pains and drank too much to self-medicate.

It’s no accident that the best rounds of golf that I played during those years came when I was on vacation. Do you remember how you feel when you are totally away from worrying about what goes on at the office or your clients?  You relax, you enjoy, you have more fun…you play better.

My single-digit handicap and best round, a 1 under par, all came after I left that job to do what I’m doing now. Did I practice more? No. It was like my body was rewarding me for finally eliminating all of that stress.

Now, if you’re not so concerned about your scores, then by all means, use golf itself as a stress-reliever.

And when you do that, notice the mechanism you used to switch over to being de-stressed. I want you to realize that it wasn’t the game that de-stressed you.

You did it.

Golf was just a sensory stimulus that you allowed for that mechanism to work for you. You can use that at work and home to better manage your stress…your body will thank you.

A de-stressed golfer plays ten times better. An enjoyable game of golf de-stresses you for better performance at work.

The way you live is the way you play and vice versa.

For those of you that don’t go to a regular job that think I’m not talking about you, think again. Stress is relative for everyone.  A homemaker may not have to write a report and create a spreadsheet under a deadline but it is just as stressful juggling the many responsibilities of caring for a family.

Your unconscious mind IS your body. It’s the collective intelligence of all the cells. You use your body for golf don’t you? It’s time to do something about your stress.

I have a saying about stress…change it, change me, or get sick.

Here’s a few things that you can do right now to reduce or eliminate some unnecessary stress in your life and your game:

1. Get organized. Use lists, your personal organizing software, your cellphone, a spreadsheet, bulletin boards. Get things out of your head and onto some form of organizing tool. Allow that tool or system to take care of the issue so that you can just leave that issue with the paper or the electronic device.  If your home is disorganized and cluttered, there are people in your hometown who are professional organizers that will come to your place and make you very happy.

2.  Learn to say “NO.” Do not take on more things when your plate is full. Ask a friend or partner to remind you that you are strengthening your “NO” muscle.  You cannot be a success in business or golf when you are more worried about what people will think of you. What is it that you want more?  Wake up to the fact that saying YES to everything is not what you really want.

3. Set or clarify your goals. Vague, undefined goals are one of the biggest causes of stress. If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you get there?  Use this everywhere in life.

I will write some more about this very soon but for now, WAKE UP! Get out of that stress trance.

I like to say that I do more “de-hypnotizing” than I do “hypnotizing”

Greens and fairways,

 
Craig

I am working with folks every day in my office for such things as chronic pain relief, weight loss, sports performance and various other such problems. Yes, I use hypnosis, NLP and other unconscious communication techniques. With every client, I teach them how to PLAY or LIVE in the zone over the course of a few sessions. This doesn’t generally happen overnight but the more I do this work, the more I am finding that it takes care of everything!

In other words, we can do specific interventions to solve specific problems but guess what, the unconscious mind (ucm) finds other ways to manifest the greater problem…and the client just trades one problem for another.

I received a question from one of the members who has gone through my CD program and has a serious golf problem that he hasn’t been able to solve with any amount of practicing.  Here’s the part of my answer that teaches him some basics of how to PLAY and LIVE in the zone.  It’s really quite simple folks…most of you over-analyze everything (so do I at times).

…stop trying to “fix the problem” that obviously hasn’t worked for awhile. Time to do something different. You’ve been giving a lot of thought energy to this problem for awhile I’m guessing and that actually makes it worse. Put it aside and watch it go away from the following steps.  Believe that it will and that you have the keys to make that happen…

Step 1. Set an intention.
Your intention is not to fix this problem. It is to establish communication with your ucm and play in the zone all of the time.
Sit down one day quietly in your easy chair and relax. Talk to yourself as you understand the paradigm I’ve explained here and in the program.  Make friends with your ucm, call him (Name) #2 if you want.  You must put all of your heart into this while in a completely easy, relaxed state. Believe that what you are doing is as REAL as anything else you’ve done in your life…because it is. It’s at least as REAL as your problem is now isn’t it?  Make a big deal afterward about what you did. Be happy about it.

Step 2. Repetition
Every night before you go to bed, go over what you did in step 1. Continue the conversation and make friends and ask your ucm to support you in your golf game. Tell it that the game makes you happy, relieves stress (it better or your ucm won’t help you out. If it doesn’t, that may be why it is causing the problem so that you quit the game.), improves your health with the exercise, movement, and fresh air and is
all good for the body.  If golf isn’t good for your body, then your ucm will do things to make you quit.

Step 3. Let it all go.
You need to do a ceremony for yourself about forgiving yourself for all the misses. Do this like in step 1 in your easy chair. Go over all the misses of this problem that you can remember and state something about those that you can’t. Forgive yourself with all the love you can conjur up.
Clear all that out and then fall asleep to a nice little nap.

Step 4. Play the game for fun
Go out and play some rounds ONLY with the idea that you are going to have fun this time. You don’t care about your score. Notice how your body feels and what you are thinking about as you play this way. When you make mistakes (and you will), remember that you forgive yourself easily for them and laugh about them.  Open your senses to the sights, sounds, smells, feel, even tastes of the golf course. Pay
very close attention to what your senses take in and nothing else while having fun on the course.  Really enjoy everything about being on a golf course and doing your favorite activity.  See how much fun you really can have. Laugh and smile a lot!
Step 5. Repeat and reinforce on and off the course.
Do all the steps above in your mind any time you have spare moments to think or daydream. Smile and laugh at how easy this all becomes.
Think about the reasons why you play golf in the first place. On the course, smile a heck of a lot more while thinking of these things.
Know that you are in the process of not only playing IN THE ZONE…but LIVING IN THE ZONE.

Let me know how it goes.

Greens and fairways,

Craig

So many golfers get stuck at a certain scoring level. Why can’t I break 80 or 90 or whatever?  This is why I named this break 80 golf because I was in the same boat for years. I tried everything…lessons, range practice, I read all the best magazine articles, I bought products, etc. etc.

 I had never been a failure at anything! And for 20 years, this golf thing had me beat. I couldn’t “figure” my way out of it. I couldn’t “will” my way to making it happen. Then, one day, I give up the game. I throw in the towel. I put the clubs in that corner of the garage that you know you don’t see very often.

And then…a few months later, one fine day, it happened on a weekend trip to Central Oregon. I not only finally broke 80, but I shot a 77! It was unbelievable to me…and so easy it was surreal.

Looking back and knowing what I know now I believe I have the answers as to how I really did it.

The most important thing is…I stopped “trying.”

Yep. Now, I’m not saying that I gave up my idea of breaking 80. But I did stop practicing and grinding about the whole thing.

I want you to think about the word “try” or “trying” for a moment here now. In my therapy office, whenever a client says the word “try” like in: “I really want to try this hypnotherapy” to see if it works.  I then, stop them right there and ask them to to “try” to grab a pen I hold in my hand. They are always successful at grabbing the pen because I just hold my hand there open and they grab it. I then tell them that they didn’t follow my instructions.

If they had followed my instructions, they would have made  attempts at grabbing the pen and then not succeeded. I then explain that if I would have said to “grab the pen” then that would have followed my instructions.

What’s the point here? First of all, we do not use the word “try” in my office except when talking about “trying” a new food that is healthy to see if the client likes it or not (for my weight loss clients).

Language is important. Sometimes your unconscious mind is listening…and sometimes it is doing the speaking.

The word “try” implies that you CAN POSSIBLY FAIL.  This is not tolerated in my office and my teachings.

Next, and getting back to breaking the scoring barrier…Yes, you need to have your golf goal declared and on paper…and then…let it go.

Do not dwell on that scoring barrier. The more thought and energy you give to that scoring barrier goal, the stronger and more resistant it becomes in your mind. The more your unconscious mind makes a big deal out of it and gets the message that this “barrier” is a “thing”…a “force” or an “entity.”

Your daily goal out on the course will not be to “break that scoring barrier.” It will be to ENTER THE ZONE…

When you play in the zone, that’s when you break your scoring barrier. Trying to break your scoring barrier prevents you from entering the zone which stops you from breaking your scoring barrier.

Next time, I will talk more about the zone….

These days, I not only play in the zone, I LIVE in it. And I teach all my clients how to get there.

Greens and fairways,

Craig

I’ve canceled my golf magazines! I’ve decided that in today’s post, I’m going to go off on a little rant. Now, I’ve been calling myself the Golf Anti-practice expert for awhile. What does that really mean? It means that I am against the constant drum beating into our heads about the only way to get better at golf. That you have to strive to get a “pro” swing blah, blah, blah. Yeah, I know, you’ve heard me say it before in my articles and such. Well, I’m taking it to a new level. I’m getting po’d. (Pissed Off) about the whole thing. So I started by stopping my golf magazine subscriptions. You know, it’s really quite funny. When I first started doing all of this about 3 years ago, I was getting 4 different magazines and reading them all cover to cover when they came. I would write on the covers the pages and titles of important articles I’d read. I would dog ear some other pages.

When they’ve come in the mail the last few months, I’ve thrown them over into a corner where I say that I will “look at them later.”
And the darn things started stacking up! Now I have this huge pile that I actually brought with me to Seattle in this move. And I can’t really justify to myself why.
And later never comes. How did I get this way? Well, don’t get me wrong, I think the humor and the covering of what goes on inside the pros minds on Tour is entertaining. I used to pull out some great quotes and thoughts that I actually have in my articles and products today. But after awhile, the articles, the great sayings, the instructions…they all repeat like a radio station with a song playlist.

Whenever I read an instruction article in a brand new magazine, I laugh to myself as I remember reading the exact same thing in at least one book in the Online classics library that was written 40 years ago!

I’ve been telling you all in my articles and posts all about that I’m the golf anti-practice expert right? Well, really, I’m anti-establishment when it comes to the “NORMAL” way of doing anything! My first thoughts when it comes to do anything these days is: “If everyone is doing it this way, then I’m going to find a better way.”

Look, I know it’s “comforting” to go to McDonalds instead of Joe’s Hamburger house. I know most folks would rather be assured of mediocrity than taking even a small risk that something could be so much better. I know that most folks cultural and environmental programming is so strong that they would rather stay where they’re at than try something new. I know all about the huge magnetic pull there is to “conform.”
I encourage you to not be “most folks”

Greens and fairways,

Craig

p.s. Here’s a picture of how I putt. Definitely not normal!

I feel sort of like a farmer in the 1930’s during the depression. You know, times are tough, the crops are low and ya’ gotta go to town to get some work. Well, I’m not exactly in that position but I did move to Seattle the first of the year. For those that don’t know, I was living in a small town, Richland WA in the Eastern part of the state. It was o.k. for while I was there living with my kids in a leave-it-to-beaver neighborhood. But now that I’m divorced and the boys live with their mother and she is remarried, it was time for me to get out into the big world! And I’ve got big plans!

The Seattle golf scene is wonderful and full of opportunity. I can hardly stand myself with all the potential I have here. Right off the bat, I lined up teaching and speaking at the Seattle golf show March 16th -18th.

Wait ’til they get a load of me!

I am going to do my “How to improve your game without practice” presentation for about an hour and I can’t wait.

Of course I will also have a booth and be selling my “Without Practice” and “Mind Links” products. But more than that, I am very hungry to get my personal NLP/Hypnosis personal practice built over here. I have decided to specialize my techniques for:

Pain Relief

I am absolutely fascinated and drawn to all there is to how the mind creates pain in the body to distract the conscious from dealing with emotional and traumatic issues in memory that are repressed. There are countless studies out there that now have proven that Hypnosis works for pain relief. It was always the claim but now with brain scanning and imaging technology, scientists and doctors are beginning to understand how. I want to learn more about this too!

Don’t worry golfers, I won’t leave you behind. In fact, this all goes right along with golf. How many of you have to adjust your swing to compensate for various aches and pains you have?  

As of this week, I am set up to operate in a very nice office:  Advanced Health Therapy in Kirkland (a Seattle suburb) I have joined a business networking group and am working on my promotional materials this week. It’s all good!

Have to tell you this and it is verrry interesting. I left Richland knowing that for awhile, I wouldn’t be able to see my boys as much. It was a very tough decision. A few days ago, I talked to the boys mother and she said that her husband is going to be transferred over to this area! I struggled and struggled with making that decision and then out of the blue, it turns out that it was absolutely the correct choice. So I’m thinking this is a lesson for me…and what is it?

I’m thinking that it is to keep yourself open to ideas. Discount nothing. Do your homework before making rash decisions but when you’re done….DO IT! Which is what I did. In fact, from the day I got the idea to move until I actually moved was about 2 weeks. I ended up throwing away a lot of printed promotional materials for my hypnosis practice but again, it was the right choice.

2007 is starting off with a bang for me and I wish the same for you. Hold your dreams, imagine them completed, and then direct MASSIVE action toward making them happen. And don’t quit for anything…Persistence.

 My big dream, and I will spell it out right here right now, is to hold a weekend GOLF training/entertainment/travel event for 200 golfers.

It will be called:   “Craig’s Big Golf Event”  or something like that.   It will be held at a wonderful resort facility with pro instructors, myself and Doc Kubistant and other golf trainers, a band playing songs from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, a comedian who specializes in golf jokes. I will be on The Golf Channel promoting it.

I’m going to make it happen. What will you make happen?

Greens and fairways,

Craig

I am making it my life’s work to help folks feel good.

I absolutely love it when a client or a friend tells me that they just “feel better” after talking to me. I live for that!! I can’t think of anything more satisfying (well, a hole-in-one and breaking 80 for the first time were close!).

Anyway, I have all this knowledge now on what makes us tick and how to get what we want in life…and still….occasionally, I find myself feeling down.

This happened to me a couple weeks ago. A business project went sour and a personal relationship was not going well at the same time. I called my best friend up. She helped me out tremendously. I tried to stay focused on my work but found it difficult throughout the day. My thoughts swirled. I kept talking myself out of it. I started losing my direction and objectivity about my situation. The feelings got worse throughout the day.

I knew I had to do something..”c’mon Craig, you’re an NLP Master, you have the tools” I told myself.

I called up 6 people one after another to help me get out of this funk I was in. Nobody was home. I left messages on 6 answering machines and nobody called me back. That was a message in itself I think as I look back.
Anyway, It was getting worse….I was spiralling more and more negatively…Time to do something now.

I remembered a learning I got from a movie called “The Secret” (I could write a book on that alone. Email me if you want to discuss or post a comment here)
I got out a piece of paper and began to hand write all the things that I am grateful for. Things like:

• I have 2 healthy, happy boys (ages 8 and 12)
• My health is excellent, almost perfect. And I am in awesome shape.
• I have a car that is paid off and runs well (98 Honda Accord)
• I have a fully furnished apartment and office for my hypnosis practice
• I can write and I have internet marketing skills
• I have friends and a wonderful supportive mother and family
• I have some exciting new developing relationships
• I have excellent presentation and public speaking skills

And a few more things like that.

Then, I began to write down nice things that I could remember other people saying to me in their exact words:

• “You have so much to give”
• “You have such a big heart”
• “…they are around you because they trust you”
• “You are a natural leader”
• “I just always feel better after talking to you”

And some other more personal stuff that hit me
I sat in my easy chair and just looked at the lists I had written. The negative feelings began to fade. I focused on the scenes the words represented and let my body change the chemistry and energy. It was working!

Now, I’m not going to say that I immediately jumped up and down for joy and went out and conquered the world right then and there. What happened though, was it got me back to neutral. I was back on “Even Keel” so that I could get busy living again.

I picked up a book I was in the middle of reading: “The Power of Intention” by Wayne Dyer. I could focus again!! That was major.

I woke up the next moring saying this over and over to myself “There is no failure, only feedback”

and a quote from one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time, John Wooden:

“We will always win…given enough time”

I’ve since typed up that handwritten page of what I am grateful for and added to it achievements I’ve accomplished in my life. I look at it often. It works, it shifts your energy. It connects you with the Power of Intention and what you really want.

Do this when you find yourself down.

I’m feeling fantastic!
Craig