In the past, golf has been viewed as a relaxing way the “inactive population” spend a day. It’s the perfect sport with little athletic ability needed and no grueling off and pre-season training. There are now over 28 million people, almost 20% of our population playing golf yearly. Golfers are everywhere and wearing everything! Times are definitely changing! If we take a look back at the body types of many professional golfers in history. Fitness was NOT a focus…and, at the time, really didn’t seem to be needed.
Now as we look at what is happening to the bodies of the pros, we see more athletic builds and weight loss throughout the entire tour. From senior players to the younger generations alike, no matter what age, aesthetics may not entirely be the focus, but function and fitness definitely are! If you want to play better golf today, you practice by swinging the club a bunch of times and whacking a lot of balls. If you want to continue to play better golf tomorrow and years down the road, then it’s time to get on the cutting edge of the fitness movement. Get out of your comfort zone and put the extra effort in to fine tune your body.
The Power of Decision
Making a decision to improve oneself by working out more, eating better, or perfecting that golf game may seem easy, but it is a decision many people have a hard time executing past the third week of January. It’s easy to want change, but it is difficult to follow through with what is necessary to achieve it. Being dissatisfied with oneself requires a deep level of critical reflection. The depth of your dissatisfaction will equal the depth of your desire and decision to commit yourself to change.
When you know exactly what you want to become, small daily decisions become clearer and easier. If your goal is to lose weight, it’s easier to choose what to eat, what to do with your time, and when to take supplements. If you want to be a better golfer, you will focus on hitting the gym, the range, and the course more often and purposefully. It is not enough to just KNOW. Information is power ONLY when it’s ACTED upon.
The Importance of Goal Setting
You’ve heard about “setting goals” a thousand times, but what you don’t often hear is why it’s so important. Having focus towards a long-term goal is vital when you make day-to-day decisions that ultimately lead up to that defining end-point. When life gets stressful, many people are quick to indulge in short-term comforts such as drinking, smoking and/or overeating. By not creating a sustainable goal, you are not preparing for a difficult mental and physical journey ahead. Robbins states, “It’s all the small decisions along the way that cause people to fail. It’s failure to follow up. It’s failure to take action. It’s failure to persist. Conversely, success is the result of making small decisions: deciding to hold yourself to a higher standard, deciding to contribute, deciding to feed your mind rather than allowing the environment to control you.”
What is your Belief System?
We’ve all heard the saying, “You are what you eat,” but there is also another saying that is equally true. “You become what you think“is powerful in determining our successes and failures. So what are you telling yourself? Are you saying, you’re fat, lazy, tired or stressed? Are you telling yourself that you will never amount to anything or will never complete a real fitness goal? How about, “I will never be as good a golfer as so and so”? Many people already believe they are going to “fail” a program before they even begin. So what usually happens to these negative beliefs? They usually come true.
It is difficult to envision future success when you focus on past and present failures. You become limited by what you find possible and comfortable. If you want to be someone you’ve never been, then you must do things you’ve never done! We all have an athlete within us ready to transform our body into a strong, fit, and healthy machine. We all have the ability to strive beyond mediocrity and become a person of greatness.
