Craigs Journey

December 21, 2011 By Craig 2 Comments

How to get a junior golfer to listen to you

Junior Golfer Putting Reading Green

It’s the 18^th hole and my junior golfer, 15 year old son, walks up to the green and eyes his ball lying about 25 feet from the hole. It’s a double breaker with a bit of an uphill putt that he needs to win a bet from me. I follow him around the green as he squats behind the ball to take a look at the slope. I hover around him and look him in the eye and finally decide to give him a little lesson in managing his mental game.

I ask him: “So AJ, right when you take the putter back, do you breathe in, out or hold your breath?”

I have a sly smile on my face as he sends mental daggers my way through his eyes. He is determined to show up the old man for the first time in our many years of playing together. I just keep smiling and smirking while noticing his body language reeks of tension.

Flash backwards in time for a moment. I’ve been playing and teaching my junior golfer since he was 3 years old. Before that, I actually pushed him around a course while in a jogger’s baby carriage in his first year while I played the game. Heck, it was the only way I was going to get to play some weekends when his mother left him with me. I’ll never forget the gyrations I went through to try to keep him either asleep or entertained enough to stay quiet on a golf course! From a distance, other golfers must have thought I was nuts doing African dances around my funny-looking golf cart!

Come to think of it, you know, those times were probably very instrumental in my learning how to deal with distractions and still play the game at a high level. Did you know that Tiger Woods Dad would purposely yell and throw clubs in front of Tiger while he was swinging in order to teach him that famous Focusing ability he is famous for?

But I digress from the main story. From the age of 3 til about the age of 12, AJ would listen and hang on every word that I would say about golf.

Golf Swing follow through

I showed him a very simple swing that served him very well and we enjoyed many years of playing together, driving golf carts in crazy ways, and celebrating another grand day at the course with a tall soda (and beer) at the 19^th hole.

And then, something happened…AJ hit that age where he all of a sudden “knows everything” if you know what I mean. His game started to get better and I could see this wall come up any time I would talk about the mental game of golf. In his eyes, it was just a matter of him playing more and practicing more and he’d seen the beginnings of improvement from that formula. Never mind that I write to 10,000 golfers every week, never mind that I’ve worked with hundreds of kids and elite athletes from all over the world. Never mind the fact that I took my own golf handicap down to a 5, shot a 1-under and a hole in one, all without practicing….No, never mind all that…I’m just Dad and I don’t know anything, right?

Sound familiar?

Flash forward to that 18^th hole where he challenged me to a bet where if he won, I would have to buy him some new Nike shoes and if I won, he would have to wash my car 10 times. He wants those shoes really bad. I don’t let up as he walks all around his putt and takes an unusually long time to line it up. I know that he is a bowl of jello inside and his legs look like they will give out from under him at any moment.

He takes the putter back very hesitantly and leaves himself a 4-footer. I mentally pounce all over him as you can feel the pressure in the air between us. I tell him that he will not be able to handle the pressure and that I am looking forward to a clean car for the foreseeable future.

Score is everything

Hi misses the putt and I say nothing, not a word. We walk to the car in silence as I let him process the whole thing his way. I turn the radio on in the car to break the tension as we drive home.

A whole month later, he comes to me and tells me he is ready to learn about the mental game and we get going in earnest.

I just learned this week, as I write this, that AJ has earned a college scholarship to play golf in college. He is a fine, upstanding, moral young man who impressed a college coach not just with his golf skills but with his personality and character.

Sometimes, golfers need to get their lessons in a certain way that only works for them. After working with hundreds of golfers in person and more online, I’ve noticed a few patterns about what makes you a play your best game. It’s all about being able to play under pressure. More to come on that…

Greens and fairways,

Craig Sigl

The No-practice expert

Filed Under: Craigs Journey, Misc, Putting

August 14, 2011 By Craig 21 Comments

How to get real improvement in your golf game – part 2

In case you missed part 1, you can go read it here: improve your golf game – part 1

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Now to continue on with the story…

My first drive is perfect. I can’t ask for more. What do I do? Instantly after watching my ball land right where I want it to and as I walk towards it, I am reminding myself of what made that happen, namely, my plan I told you about in part 1.

Improvement on the green came from "The Plan"

I followed my plan to the letter. I did exactly what I said I would. I got the result I wanted. I felt totally empowered. I told myself that I got it now. I replayed that shot over and over in mind as I walked to the ball. I talked to my unconscious mind and thanking it for pulling the “280 yard straight shot” file from the filing cabinet in my mind. I told it that I wanted that again and again…all day. I went over an over in mind what went right. I filled my thoughts with “this is how I play” and “this is how I drive the ball.” Etc.

And…I’m smiling all the way as I keep walking to the ball.

Deer on the golf course

I get up to my second shot and it’s about 70 yards to the pin. Great, no problem. I know what to do here as well. I know that my sand wedge will go 70 yards at about a 3/4 backswing. I figure that out a couple years ago when I took a bucket of balls down to the schoolyard while the kids were out and I placed a rag at 30, 50, and 70 yards out and then hit while only observing how far back I take my backswing. You really only have to do this once and it pays off for years.

Now, the problem for me wasn’t my distance on approach shots. The problem was hitting the darn thing straight. Standing over the ball, I re-committed my entire mind and energy to what I had been working the last 2 days…square and point.

I took a look at the pin and used that target to draw an imaginary line to my ball. I squared my body up to that target line. I went through my preshot routine like religious monk in prayer. I NEVER LOOKED AT THE TARGET AGAIN. I didn’t have to!

Yes, I know, this goes contrary to popular golf advice for score improvement. Everyone says to be “target oriented” and so do I. But, you see, at my level of play and for 90% or more of all recreational golfers JUST PICKING A TARGET AND FOCUSING ON IT ISN’T ENOUGH. We need to have an intermediate, simple instruction between the target and our swing that bridges that gap.

That “bridge” is the 12-18 inches of imaginary target line from the ball to the target.The simple instruction I give to my unconscious mind is to “square the club face at the point of impact and point it (or “follow it” if you like that better) down the target line”

I hit to about 10 yards from the pin, I lip out my putt and tap in for an easy par.

Wild turkeys on the golf course

My son, on the other hand, is in big trouble having hit his shot into the lateral hazard. He pulls out a bogey and I can see the sweat starting to bead on his forehead as says “nice hole Dad” to me…and we go to the next hole.

I end up following my plan to near perfection. I end up the day with NO DOUBLE bogeys and 1 birdie. I shoot a 79 playing strictly by the rules of golf and I win the bet. I’m very excited! I’ve got my game back!!! Woohoo!!!

My son owes me 12 hours of labor. What do you think I should have him do for me?

Car washes? Clean my clubs? Clean my house and toilets!, Yes, that’s it…hahaa.

I don’t rub any of it in with him. At the end of the round, I’m a good sport and I put my arm around him and remind him of some great shots he made.

The 19th hole

We go out to beer and pizza afterward and have a good laugh about the round and the funny things we said and did that day. We love golf. We love the camaraderie that goes with the game. We love the competition whether it’s with someone else or with just ourselves to beat our personal best. We love the outdoors and we love the game itself.

I go to bed that night in total gratitude…

The next day, in the car on the ride home, I ask my son what his plan was for fixing what went wrong with his game. He gave me the typical teenager “I don’t know” answer.

We had a long talk and I helped him devise it. He says he is committed to the plan…we’ll see

We’re playing tomorrow.

I’ll let you know.

Greens and fairways,

Craig

p.s. This just came in from one of my golfselfhypnosis.com members:

“Thank you so much. I’ve really been helped with my golf game. Having
been a therapist for several years before I retired and got to play
more golf, I’ve seen what hypnosis can do. I usually shoot in the low
100s, but after listening to that one time I shot a 92. I’ll be sure
to keep it going. I hope any of the older women will go with it. I’m 68 and
it’s great to play better!

Thanks again.

Katharine Abbott, Ph.D., Provo UT

$24.95 for real golf improvement - Click Here

Filed Under: Craigs Journey, Irons

August 7, 2011 By Craig Leave a Comment

3 steps to really improve your golf

I just got back from my annual golf vacation trip to the Running Y in South Central Oregon. It’s a beautiful Arnold Palmer course along Klamath Lake. It winds in and around some amazing scenery and you usually get to see wildlife like snakes, eagles, squirrels, marmots, deer and I once saw a bobcat there.

Wild things on the golf course

Anyway, the first round out, I played horribly. I put a couple dollar bet on the score with my 17 y/o son who lives for the days when he can beat me at golf. He’s well on his way and ended up winning by a stroke as I carded an 88. Ugggh. I was not happy with my game at all. Usually on vacation, I play my best because, well frankly, I’m in a great mood as vacations tend to do that!

After that game, I examined myself to find out why I played so poorly. By the way, the time to do that is after the round. During the round, you just want to focus on your successes and forgetting your misses. In that review of each hole, it was obvious to me that I just wasn’t hitting my approach shots which is one of my strengths!

As I teach my son and you, I then went about designing a plan to fix that before the next round and that plan revolved around “square and point.” (If you missed that video, here it is: straight golf shots)

I thought, “Great, I know the problem, I have the solution, I know what to do” and vowed to put some attention on it during my warmup before my next round.

So the next round comes up a couple days later and I go to the range to warm up. I go through my usual routine of pretending to play the course while on the range. During my “pretend” approach shots, I’m thinking and practicing “square and point” and my shots seem a lot better than before.

I go out on the course and shoot an 86. Ugggh!

Running Y golf resort

Please understand that I don’t mean to insult you if that’s a great score for you. Everyone has their standard and mine, of course, is to break 80.

“What’s going on here” I again reflect and ask myself after the round. I was making putts and chipping reasonably well but my drives were bad and that undermined my confidence for my approach shots. Net effect on score: NO GAIN.

We had a 3rd round planned in a couple days. I vowed to fix these problems and finish the week with a great score.

With my driving, it was simple. I found myself trying to be too tricky in “working” the ball. I was trying to turn it over to get that extra 10 yards so as to make sure I out drive my son. I was trying to be Mr. Pro Golfer by hitting the low screaming drives against the wind and making it fly high with the wind…all fun things to do, but if you aren’t good enough to be consistent with that (I’m obviously not) then that is a BAD plan.

I let go of that and made a solid commitment to hit my regular consistent straight shot… every time, no matter what the hole or how long it is. Follow my preshot routine, pick my target, align my body along it, and just do “square and point.”

I spend the next 2 days thinking “square and point” with every free moment. I listen over and over to my golf hypnosis recording for accuracy. Before the round and warming up, I leave my woods in the bag and completely dedicate my warmups to “s and p.” I turn myself into a robot before I ever get to the first tee. I allow myself to have fun and joke and mess with my brothers and my son between shots but as soon as the preshot routine begins, I am Ben Hogan jr. with my icy focus on S & P.

Golf Green protected by bunkers

Look over what I’ve written here as there are powerful messages on how to really improve your golf.

1. Review your game after every round.

2. Come up with a plan to fix what went wrong. In doing that, know that if you’ve hit good shots before or putted well before, then you have the answers within you. Ask for help if you need it.

3. Completely commit to the plan. Believe in yourself and the plan. Go all out to execute it.

What do most golfers do instead? The same thing they always do. They go to the range, do the same routine they’ve always done, and then they just HOPE that the golf gods will smile on them and give them a good score the next time. Not me, there is no HOPE in my vocabulary. There’s INTENTION and COMMITMENT.

My son makes a bet with me for straight up scratch scores. If he wins, I have to buy him a new pair of Nike Golf shoes. If I win, I get 12 hours of free labor from him for whatever I want.

The round begins and I rip my drive 280 right down the middle….

…tell you the rest in my next post.

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Click Here

Filed Under: Craigs Journey, Misc, Swing

July 8, 2011 By Craig 4 Comments

Playing hacker golf

The game is on!

Ok, it happened yesterday to me…I played hacker golf.

There, I said it and I admit it. (I still am struggling with that admission).

Yesterday, I played a round and I played the worst I’ve played in years. Now, this is no disrespect to those who are still honing their game and are happy playing hacker golf, believe me. I played that way for years and enjoyed the game immensely.

But this was different for me! You see, I played on the 4th of July (just 2 days before) and played pretty good. Not my best, but certainly right in my range. I shot an honest 80 on a full-sized course. Yes, you probably know how frustrating it is to get that close to breaking 80 while missing 3 putts inside 4 feet when any one of them would have gotten me a 79. Oh well. I was still pretty happy with my 80 since I hadn’t done any practicing and and only played about once a month this year so far.

And then yesterday, the wheels fell off.

I’m playing with my 17 year-old son who is about as good as me and we put $5 on the line, scratch score for 18 holes.

So I go out to the first tee with all the confidence in the world. I’m loose, I’m feeling great, the weather is perfect, the course is in great shape…and what do I do?

I hit my opening drive into the trees on the left with a pull-hook.

Trees - the sentinels of the golf course

Ahhh, no problem right? It’s a par 5 and I can just punch it back to the fairway and play for the par.

But noooooooo. I hit an overhanging branch trying to get too cutesy in attempting to advance the ball and then have to do it all over again. I end up with a double on the first hole.

“Ok, no problem” I tell myself. “Just get back to doing what you know how and play consistent golf and you’ll be fine.”

Hole #2 is a big dogleg left and pull my tee shot into the left trees again.

“What the *($$%%&** is that?

How is it that I can hit 12 fairways in a row 2 days ago without any warmup and then come out and it’s like I’ve never played golf in my life? I end up with a triple bogey and my son is snickering over there counting the money he’s going to make.

I continue with my worst round for the next 4 holes and end up being 12 over par after 6 holes and 9 strokes behind my son. I’m in a daze and I start asking myself “what am I to learn here today?”

Just then, I’m standing on the tee of the 7th hole and the 2-some behind us drives up in their cart with a big smile on their face and jokingly asks “Are we having fun yet?”

And I answer “Not really”

And he says back “Well, why don’t you start?” and I said “Great idea!”

It's never too late to turn a round around

Something shook inside of me and I drilled my next tee shot 270 yards down the right side. I somehow got the idea that I could still win. My next shot was 220 yards and I roll my 3-wood to the back of the green.I miss the birdie but get the tap-in par.

All of a sudden, I hear this voice inside my head “Every shot matters, never ever ever give up.” My son pars the hole too.

It’s the 7th hole and I par it. I par the next 4 holes in a row and I pick up 5 strokes on my son.

“Never ever ever give up….every shot matters” is still ringing in my head. I keep my focus even on the tap-ins.

We come down to the 17th hole and I’m down 4 strokes. I scramble for a par and my son double-bogeys.

18th hole and I’m down 2. I tell him that I’m going to birdie this hole because it’s a par 5 and I’m feeling mighty powerful.

I know it puts the scare into him. I’m 70 yards out when I hit my approach over the green and into the bunker. “Never ever ever give up”

I wedge out to about 8 feet from the hole. My son is about 4 feet away to make his bogey.

Every shot counts!

I make the putt!!! He’s got tremendous pressure on him and I add a little more by asking him how much pressure he is feeling…hahaha.

He ends up making the putt to win by 1 stroke. I sign the $5 bill and it’s hanging on his bulletin board right now as we speak.

Now, we both played horrible, if you look at our scores, but no matter. That last 5 holes gave me such a thrill and challenge to try to come from behind. I learned more from my day of playing hacker golf than I would have if I had shot a 77.

Never ever ever give up!

There’s always something to learn. I learned about myself that I can turn on focus like a water faucet. I learned that I have a reservoir of determination that I can call on at any time.

Even if your score is toast mid-way through a round you’ve got to find a way to make the rest of the round count.

How many times have you played a round and played bad and given up on your score only to start really playing well AFTER giving up on your score? Happens to all of us.

Even if you have nothing on the line and are just fighting your own anger from playing poorly, you’ve got something to prove… to yourself and there’s something to learn and grow from. No round is a throwaway round unless you declare it so.

At the very least, when you let go of scoring during a bad round, you will find in yourself a certain ease and comfort about your game. A letting go. That is something that you own that you can recall again in the future when something is on the line. Golf can teach us many things, especially when playing hacker golf!

I’m going to be spending the weekend going back to the drawing board and listening to my golf hypnosis recordings. Maybe I’ll see you over there eh?

Greens and fairways,

Craig

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If just about every top teaching pro says that golf is 90% mental, then why do most golfers spend next to zero time and effort at improving focus, consistency, and managing emotions like pressure and fear?

Here’s your answer and it couldn’t be easier and at $24.95, it’s a steal: Golf Self Hypnosis

Filed Under: Craigs Journey, Mental/Emotional

October 19, 2010 By Craig 6 Comments

Bring your “vacation” golf back to your home course

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from my clients about how well they have played on their vacation. And I’m right there with them. I think I wrote to you somewhere already that I was taking my annual golf vacation with my two boys to Canada. We had an amazing time cruising around BC and Alberta golfing, camping, and seeing the sites.

I think we ended up golfing 4 times in a week and, as usual, I played the best rounds of the year on this trip. What’s going on with us golfers when this happens? Could I call it “proof” that we play our best when we feel our best? I’ve even found that I still play very well at the resorts under pressure just because I am having such a blast and enjoying myself so much.

Oh, I have to tell you about an area that I didn’t know about that has some fantastic golf and gorgeous scenery to go with it up there in British Columbia.

It’s the Upper Columbia River Valley area in BC. There are 15 courses within 40 minutes of each other! We stayed at a town called Radium Hot Springs and yes, we did have a great soak in the natural hot springs. The area is so beautiful and the weather is perfect during the golf season, dry and warmer than most of Canada. We stayed at a very nice resort there and the staff was very friendly. Did I mention 15 courses!

Anyway, I shot a 77 on a par 70 course and was very happy with my game. My son, on the other hand, still hasn’t learned how to bounce back when he makes bad shots and he lets it get to him and then it’s all downhill from there. But I must say that I give partial credit to being on vacation. I was smiling, I was happy being with my boys, the weather was perfect, life was just so good…and my golf game just flowed from all of that.

Now, when I go out to a local course, I do everything I can to re-live those types of vacation feelings. I stop and smell the flowers, I definitely smile a lot, I make it a point to laugh and joke with my partners. I really find good feelings in this one word: “Appreciation”

Appreciation for being healthy enough to play. For having eyes to see the green grass and the outdoors. To be able to afford this wonderful activity and how much I have learned from it that I have applied to all aspects of my life.

I mean, c’mon…what percent of the world’s population gets the privelege to play this great sport? Do you realize how lucky we are to have enough abundance to spend money on playing a grownup game? I can sometimes work myself up into a frenzy of “Appreciation” if I really try. I see so many golfers with serious and sour-puss faces out there on the course. Aren’t we there to have fun? Even Tiger wrote in his book: “Even when I’m grinding in a tournament, I’m still having fun”

I would love to hear your thoughts on either your favorite golf vacation resort or area and why you love it so much. If you have tips on how to bring that vacation feeling into every game, I want to read that too and share it with everyone as well.

I’m busy planning next year’s golf vacation and can’t wait to discover another golf treasure. Maybe we should meet up there, eh? (I love Canada).

Greens and fairways,

Craig

Filed Under: Craigs Journey, Mental/Emotional, Misc

June 28, 2010 By Craig Leave a Comment

About me

Welcome to Craig Sigl’s Blog. Who the heck am I?

Well, that’s a loaded question. I usually like to find out about someone by asking what their passions are. I think more than anything else, that is what defines us and drives us to act on anything. You know, those things we do with seemingly no effort. We feel like we are “pushed” by an invisible force to make it happen. We can’t NOT do it!
Some folks say they are driven by money. I would ask them what will that money get for them. Some say it’s religion or God. I would ask them “for what purpose?”

No matter what the answer, it’s right..It’s You! Having said that, my passions are to explore, to experience, to travel, to discover, to learn, to interact,….and to teach.

If I were financially free, and I’m working hard on that, then I think that I would spend my days going to classes, reading books, taking seminars, travelling the world and then using what I learn to make a difference in others lives, as many as possible.

“If we’re not growing, we’re dying”

Lately I’ve come up with some big Aha’s. You know, those light-bulb ideas that sound the bells in your head like…Eureka, I’ve got it now! In no particular order:
1. Belief is everything

2. Everything we do can be boiled down to emotions and feelings

3. We are exactly what we think we are and we project that to others
4. We have an unconscious mind and that’s where our untapped potential lies

5. There is a God. Just one.

6. There is another dimension or field out there that we can’t sense with our normal states of consciousness

7. Everyone has a purpose and meaning for their life. The concept of “Love” in it’s many forms is part of this.

8. I will have more revelations and ideas as I go along…I will never stop learning

Ok, here are my little “Aha’s” and passions.

I have 2 boys. I love to camp and play games with them and their friends. I really enjoy golfing and fishing, especially fly fishing. Yes, I let the fish go and give them the respect of life in the process. I love to play sports and games with anyone. Watching them on TV is fun too. I really enjoy just sitting with another person and talking about life, people, and how the universe works. I could do that for hours.
Since I was a teenager, I loved listening to hard rock music, until recently. My studies are showing me how some environmental choices we make affect our strength and ability to think and act powerfully and clearly. I will still occasionally indulge in some of my old favorites like Deep Purple, Rush, The Cult and 80’s metal for anchored nostalgia regression purposes. And now, most of my musical listening time is with Hypnotic Music and Sounds.

I read about a book or 2 a month. Some of my favorites are:

Holographic Golf, Confidence, The China Study, Blink, Everything You Need To Know To Feel Go(o)d, Overachievement, Influence, Inner Golf, Holographic Universe, Quantum Healing, Psychocybernetics, Superlearning. There’s more…I’m one of Amazon’s best customers.

My history? Ok, here it is. Grew up in Southern California with both parents, 2 brothers and one sister. I now feel very fortunate to have been placed in such a great family. The more I talk with folks, the more I find that to be the exception and I’m grateful for it, especially my parents.

Went to College and earned my degree in Business Finance. Wish I’d studied Psychology now. I moved to the Northwest at age 25 to see the great beauty of nature and play in it.Hired on with Fedex Express and got married soon after. Both boys born in Portland OR area after we relocated there as I continued to seek out my own business opportunity.

It never happened until I accepted a severance package from Fedex after 15 years. Divorce happened right after that. I began my new adventure with www.break80golf.com

Breaking 80 is about scoring in the 70’s in the game of golf but it represents much more than that to me. It means breaking through every self-imposed barrier we have. And I’ve got a few more to crush yet; some mine, some others.

“Few really believe, the most believe that they believe…or even make believe”

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Craig Sigl is a Speaker, Trainer. and Master Practitioner of Hypnosis, NLP and Time Empowerment techniques. You can find everything he is involved in on his Business site including phone, address and email contact info at:

http://www.craigsigl.com

Filed Under: Craigs Journey

June 26, 2010 By Craig Leave a Comment

Just your average golfer

Craig Sigl, an average golfer who turned himself into pretty good one…without practice.

I was bitten by the golf bug when I was about 12 when my older brother and parents would take me to a par 3 course in Newport Beach, California. This course even had lights so that you could play at night. I thought the whole idea of golf was just a blast!

Over the next 25 years or so, I continued playing average golf like many of us. That is, I’d score (from white tees, regulation course) somewhere in the 90′s maybe high 80′s or over 100 once in awhile.

During those years, I took a golf class in Junior College, I took a lesson set from a pro, I read Golf magazines, I listened to advice from well-meaning partners and friends, and I watched pro golf tournaments on TV regularly. I enjoyed playing golf at that level but always felt I was missing something since my game never improved! I just stayed at that same level of play every time I went out.

Sometimes I would go out with the idea that I was going to just drink beer and have fun with my friends and partners and not care a whit about score. And sometimes I would really try hard to have a good round.

It really didn’t matter either way to my scoring and I felt there was just no way I was going to get any better.I just couldn’t crack this “golf thing.” It was very frustrating. I was having to admit that I was just an average golfer…and maybe for life.

So, at some point in many average golfer’s life, you either say to yourself “I give up trying to improve and am just going to go out and have a good time knocking the ball around in the great outdoors”. OR You say to yourself “I am on a mission to improve and I will try everything in my power to hit my scoring goal of breaking 80 or 90 or 100.

I chose the latter, yet, I had a big problem in that I didn’t have any time to devote to the game.

One day, I’m messing around in my garage and I start looking at a bunch of books gathering dust in a box. I thumbed through a couple in particular that I remembered from years ago in junior college. One had a chapter on Accelerated Learning for sports performance! Another one had quotes from Jack Nicklaus about golf! These 2 books sparked my interest and formed my foundation for self-improving my golf score to be able to
Regularly Break 80 Without Practicing!

After selling over 500 copies of Without Practice around the world in it’s first 9 months in 2005, I knew I was on to something. I took courses from American Pacific University and other Certifying Boards to begin my own Personal Mind Training practice.

I have since partnered with Sports Psychologist, Dr. Tom Kubistant whom I consider a mentor and a friend.

Today, on any given off day, you can find me at the gym working out, at the golf course, or just playing ball at the local school yard with my 2 boys and their friends. At the age of 47, I might even accept a challenge for a 50 yard dash race or a full court game of basketball!

“Participation in sports is more than about just playing a game. It teaches so many of life’s lessons that we wouldn’t otherwise experience. It can also lead to exciting possibilities of discovering potential in all areas of our life through the power of the mind.”

I also specialize in using Hypnosis for athletes and business people in getting over mental blocks, performance anxiety and fears.

For sports, visit: Seattle Sports Hypnosis

Qualifications:

Washington State registered Hypnotherapist

Certified Sports Hypnotist
American Pacific University Certified NLP Master Practitioner and Trainer
Association for Integrative Psychologies Trainer and Master of NLP, Hypnosis, Time Empowerment techniques
National Guild of Hypnotists, Certified Hypnotherapist
Medical Hypnotherapist Certification – Alabama School of Hypnotherapy
International Medical & Dental Hypnotherapy Assoc. Certification
The National Board of Professional and Ethical Standards Certified

Education:

B.S. Cal State University Long Beach

Other Experience:

Fortune 500 Manager

Speaker:

Discover U instructor

2007 Seattle Golf Show Main stage presenter

2007 Seattle Women’s Show main stage presenter

Toastmasters - Former Club President, CT level speaker

Various Fraternal clubs, businesses, and sports team meetings

Craig is a dynamic speaker who presents eye-opening and entertaining seminars

If you think your group can handle his uplifting energy, call 425-457-7777 to book him at your event.

You’ll want to check out the articles and click the button to get your free digitized golf ebooks. Send me an email if you need more info. I’ll be glad to help or steer you to where I think you can get help. Thx,

Greens and fairways!

Craig

Filed Under: Craigs Journey

March 24, 2010 By Craig Leave a Comment

How I became the golf anti-practice expert

When I think about it, it’s been an odd journey for me. I started out my adult life at 18 in the express transportation industry. I went 23 years there, 16 of them with Fedex, the world’s 2nd largest airline by fleet size. And now, I am now helping golfers, athletes and business people with peak performance. If you would have told me 10 years ago I would be where I am today, I would have said you’re crazy. Never in my wildest dreams did I envision where I’m at today and the satisfaction I get from doing the work I do. The freedom I have now is just priceless.

As you may know, my golf journey parallels all of that to the tee! As I grew my mind in business, I expanded my thinking in golf…and both improved drastically. I’ve had some major breakthroughs along the way, the majority of them have come in the last 6 years believe it or not. It’s been a wild ride and I wouldn’t trade what I’ve gone through for anything. The inner peace I’ve achieved and having gone through the junk to get here is priceless. I now help folks follow their own path and feel that is my mission to touch 100, 000 people in this way before I’m done here.

I don’t talk about my dark years much but it is important to set the stage, so here goes…

My 30’s were not a good time for me. I was doing a job I didn’t like. My marriage had huge problems. I had boxed myself into the transportation industry which is notorious for mediocre pay with long hours. My health was in shambles. I abused alcohol. I was stressed out to the max. I was sick at least 4-5 times a year including some really weird conditions like Shingles. Yuck. Twice, I went on anti-depressants during those dark years.

I remember my little boys at the time asking me what was wrong with me as I lay down on my back and stared at the ceiling for hours on a weekend when I should have been having fun with them. If you don’t know about clinical depression, what can happen is, everything that you would normally find fun and interesting becomes a chore and dreadful. Yep, even golf. During a period in my mid 30’s, I actually put the clubs away for about a year. I was SO frustrated with the game and my failure to be able to Break 80, my longstanding goal. If that wasn’t bad enough, I had no friends and my family lived far away. There’s more but I’ll spare you the details and they aren’t pretty.

Hard to even remember that time but I do know it happened. Much of that period is a blur to me now. It’s no wonder huh?

So what happened? What started the turnaround? I hit bottom…and had nowhere to go but up..or out.

Gratefully now though, I had a couple gifts given to me prior to that. The first major one was from the doctor who first diagnosed me with depression and put me on the pills. I thought, “No Way, these are for mentally ill people.” I gave in because I was getting sick so often and was really tired of that. 2 weeks later and a checkup, my doctor asked me how I was doing and I said: “Much better.” He said: “Great, nowwhat are you going to do to change your life!” I was flabbergasted. I was stuck in such a rut that I could not see how life could be any different. I had forgotten about all the fun I used to have when I was younger. I made a vow that I was going to do some changing allright…and I did. I started taking computer classes and researching new careers and began reading personal development and psychology books.

The second great gift that I was given and accepted was from a boss I had at Fedex. I was a brand new manager. I hadn’t yet gone through any training. We had a management meeting and my new boss gave me a slew of projects to complete and deadlines to get them done. The things he was talking about might as well have been Chinese since I had no idea what he was talking about. After the meeting and later that day, I went in to talk with him to get some guidance on how to do the things he wanted done. I remember distinctly how he responded to my request for help: “Figure it out.” I walked out of his office with my mouth hanging to my chest and the biggest sense of pressure I’ve ever felt. Somehow, I figured everything out. I always have since then. When I get stuck on something I just remind myself that I can “figure it out” and I do!!

What are the big gifts that you have received in your lifetime that can help you find freedom and abundance? Take a minute to reflect on that. How can you apply those gifts to every area of your life to create something awesome for yourself and your loved ones?

Flash forward to my last day at Fedex. I am under contract not to disclose why I left Fedex except I will say that I left voluntarily and my boss persuaded me to stay longer than I wanted to so that I could train my replacement. They did not want me to leave. Anyway, I WAS FREE!! And it felt great!! All of a sudden, I started breaking 80 more often.

I began to work on version 1 of Break 80 Without Practice and hired a coach to teach me how to promote it.We spent hours on the phone over time as he guided me to my first online presence and sales of the new product that first year. During that time, I also got divorced. I was the one who left. It was very difficult for me and my boys but I did what I could to spend more time and more quality time with them than I did when we were all together. That is something I am very proud of myself for. Once again, MORE FREEDOM!! Soon after that I got my handicap down to a 5. My golf game was leading my life down a really awesome path!

I began taking hypnosis and NLP trainings in order to further my mental game knowledge. I was fascinated and applied what I learned to everything I did online and off. The really amazing thing about that time period is, when you go through such trainings, you get to experience clearing your own personal stuff and go through your own transformation in the process. Thank you GOLF!! I broke par on a full-sized course! A 1 under 71!

I’ve often said and written that I think that Golf is like a religion. It’s led me to where I am today…very happy, satisfied, excited to be alive, passionate about many things, abundant in personal relationships. It’s a metaphor for so much of how we live, work and play. It is said that you can tell a lot about a person by the way they play golf and that just the first 4 holes of a round is all you need.

There’s so much more to tell and so I will just keep writing, giving speeches, and doing trainings for you. Yes, I know that you signed up for golf information. Believe me, the way you live, is the way you play.

My biggest secret to transformation and/or reinvention in golf, business and in life is….COACHING.

Today, I am very proud to say that my current coach is Brendon Burchard.

Craig Sigl and Brendon Burchard

He is a trainer who teaches people how to take their story and expertise and turn it into an empire. He has taught me much over the last year and I am furiously implementing it all as fast as I can and in between my office clients.I just talked to him last week and this article is part of my latest strategies as you will see.

If you want to learn something about how to become a paid expert as I have, he’s given us, his coaching students, an hour and half free training on how to turn your knowledge into an empire using business models such as:

book author, speaker, consultant, internet marketer, coaching, getting sponsorships (what he’s really famous for). He’s partnered with some of the biggest players on the planet. Jack Canfield, John Gray, Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Paula Abdul, Frank Kern, Daniel Amen. He shared the stage last fall with the Dali Lama and Richard Branson.

Anyway, I think you will find something very valuable in the psychology of persuasion and strategies that you can use in your current business or if you want to start one for yourself and find the freedom I have. It’s an hour and half complementary training. It just might change your life or give you some freedom.

Go here to check it out:

If you want to go straight to the goods: https://burchardgroup.infusionsoft.com/go/EA_live/break80/

Lately, 2 things have been on my mind that are much bigger than anything I’ve gone through that help me get perspective. One of them is death and dying. My mother’s passing last year has given me new insight about the term “purpose” and what we are doing here. I am really becoming totally at peace with the idea of my mortality. Once again, this is giving me even more freedom! Freedom to be open, to share, to really live. To me, this is now going beyond being just a trite expression to “live every day like it could be your last.”

As with everything I teach, this stuff has to get into the cellular intelligence of your body. I feel that trite saying is now there for me. It’s a really good thing to be free of fear.

The next big idea that I keep running into head first is the fact that so many people just don’t believe that they can change. It’s very sad to me and I even get it in full force with clients who come to see me and are very motivated to change. They are paying me great money to help them change and yet, a great percentage of what we work on is getting them to really believe that what we are going to do will transform them into what they want…permanently.

I guess that if I hadn’t gone through my own major changes, I couldn’t very well convince others that they can change. As it is, I tell my clients to just “borrow” my confidence in their ability to get what they want.

I’m grateful for having been at the bottom of the barrel. I don’t ever want to go back there but I’m so happy I went through it.

You can change too…You don’t have to wait to get to the bottom like I did.

What do you want to change in addition to your golf game?

I’m here for you.

Greens and fairways,

Craig

Filed Under: Craigs Journey

December 21, 2009 By Craig Leave a Comment

What Really Screws Up Your Game…and your life

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

*******************************

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

*******************************

Filed Under: Craigs Journey

October 31, 2009 By Craig Leave a Comment

Breaking out of the box

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…

Filed Under: Craigs Journey

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About me

Just your average golfer