Let Your Reality Kick In 

As a golfer, one of the toughest challenges you can ever take on is that of trying to capture a previous level of excellence. Whether it’s regaining your putting touch, reaching a previous handicap level or finding the winners circle again your objective cannot be reached unless you deal with reality. Being realistic allows you to proceed from where you are. Being unrealistic forces you to attempt to the impossible – to proceed from where you wish you were.

Steve Stricker and Sergio Garcia can teach us everything we need to know about reality. After winning the Deutsche Bank Championship this past weekend, Stricker, now ranked number two in the world, said that although the win was nice he’s just occupying space in Tiger’s world.

Make what you want of his attitude but everything about 32 year-old Steve Stricker’s modest approach suggests that he simply deals with what’s in front of him. As a seven-time winner on tour he’s not worried about his place in history or how well he played in the early 2000’s before his slump. He simply deals with the situation at hand.

In contrast, 29 year-old Sergio, ranked seventh in the world and also the owner of seven PGA Tour victories is a study in frustration. There’s an expectancy, possibly created by the press, possibly by his own demeanor, that he should not only win more often but throw in a few majors to boot. What’s holding him back? Putting? A negative attitude? His inability to deal with pressure? Who knows? But certainly all of those issues are his reality and he needs to acknowledge and address them before he can move on.

Is there psychological proof of the need to be realistic? Actually there is. Goal-setting 101 says that in addition to being specific, measurable and having a timeline, goals must be realistic. In Segio’s case it’s unrealistic to expect to challenge the top players in the world without ridding himself of his personal baggage. In Stricker’s case it’s realistic to expect to win again if he simply keeps taking on each small challenge as it crops up. Nothing more and nothing less.

So here’s the magic question. Who are you most like, Sergio or Steve? Once you allow your own reality to kick in you can move on from where you are and create your own success.

Bob Skura is the author of the award-winning book, How Great Golfers Think – Perfecting Your Mental Game. For more information visit: www.howgreatgolfersthink.com

Bob Skura
September 12, 2009

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