Golf Practice - Not me!Part 2

Why is Confidence so elusive? What prevents us from having confidence to go up to that important person and start up a conversation with them?  Why do I feel like my next shot is nothing more than a result of the luck of the golf gods bestowed on me or not?
And, how do we get it? How do we manufacture it when it "just isn't there?"

The solution is "Practice"

What? Are you kidding me, Craig? Yeah, I know, I hate that "practice" word, you know me well by now. But, I can't avoid it this time. And I don't mean going to the range or course and hitting balls or anything like what we normally call golf practice.

Ok, here we go. This is what we do and it will be a process that we can begin together right here, right now as you are reading this article. We'll do it together as I need to work on this as much as anyone. Yep, sometimes I feel like I can conquer the world and sometimes I feel like a victim in a natural disaster. We are going to be working on this for the rest of our lives but the good news is, we will always, always be improving it, growing it, strengthening it and that should give you a good feeling in your gut as it does for me when i think of it.

There's 2 things to do here. One; I know you may not find it easy this moment to remember a time when you felt confident. When you felt in your heart that you were all powerful in a situation. That you just Knew you were going to come out on top at the end of it. Possibly you were feeling that way because you had many similar experiences in which you triumphed and so that gave you the confidence for this situation. Think on this now...was that "feeling" something tangible? Was it something I have to grab from a shelf and wear around my neck? No, of course not. It was nothing more than a thought. What makes it so special and elusive is that it instantaneously came to the front or top of your mind FROM your unconscious. That hidden place we keep trying to get our treasures out from. Your senses and brain calculated that you were in a similar place and it "triggered" an automatic response from your unconscious that involved sending molecular messages throughout your whole body. And wha-la, you not only think confident, you FEEL confident.

I'm sorry if I've repeated myself from other articles but this is the basis of us playing good golf, getting control of our STATE as I keep going back to.

To continue on, you have created and returned to this state many, many times even if you weren't aware of it. Simple little things you do successfully throughout your day create the same kind of confidence, to a smaller degree. All it takes from now on is for you to begin to be AWARE of those situations and resulting feelings. Stop and take notice whenever you have that confident feeling about doing anything! When you come upon a task at your job or vocation that you know you have the ability to complete successfully, STOP, and pay attention to that state for a few moments before doing it. The next time you pick up the phone to call someone you like, notice your confidence again. Do this for anything! The fact is, you have unlimited stores of this confidence that you use all of the time as you will find out.

Do you ever have doubts about your ability to drive a car (or bicycle) when you've driven it many times before? Why then, do you have doubts about your ability to execute a golf shot when you have also executed it many times before?
You might answer me by saying "Yeah Craig, but I've never crashed my car before and I HAVE hit many bad shots before." To which I would reply "Oh really, which situation do you have more control over - getting in an accident in your car or executing a golf shot?" The only real difference there might be found in the word "trust." You surely don't drive your car (or bicycle) with your conscious mind, you do it unconsciously with nothing more than your eyes to guide you.

So what I'm saying here is to "practice" being Confident. Absorb it. Get used to it. Like it. Know it. Be it, live it. You have many opportunities throughout your day where confidence just "happens" spontaneously. Grab onto them and communicate to your unconscious mind that that is what you are all about and that you have ahold of this emotion and feeling. That you want to create more of it. Keep "practicing" creating it out of thin air on small things in your life and gradually work up to bigger things. Confidence grows like a very delicate plant. You have to feed it and water it and it will grow in you.

This is a very interesting exercise for us to do. It takes no time and I guarantee that just making the intention to follow what I've outlined here will ensure that it sinks into your unconscious. This will then be programming to bring it back to the surface when you want it as an automatic reaction that you command at your desire at the right time. But, it takes you to make it a habit for awhile so go ahead and start right now.

Once you get in the habit of noticing the feeling of little bits of confidence throughout your life, then take the next step and putt some balls on your carpet with the sole purpose of "practicing" being confident. Have no thought as to whether or not the ball goes to a target or not. Just do the motions of a putting stroke while re-creating confidence. PRACTICE PUTTING CONFIDENTLY, and not hitting targets. 

"Practicing" being confident off the course is nothing more than developing your STATE control. If you get that, you know you can do anything! Every time you make note of your feelings of confidence, even if it's from doing the most mundane, ordinary tasks, you will be working on your golf game....and your life game!

Greens and fairways,

Craig

P.s. what's the second thing you can do?  Hypnosis! I'll get into that some more soon.