Your Vision
“In order to be successful you have to develop your inner vision. If you have no vision for the future, you are destined to fail in the long run.” – Greg Norman
Why have a vision?
Before starting any journey, you need to have a destination in mind. We only get one life, and our time is limited. Every day is precious and gives us the opportunity to create a better life and bring our goals and dreams towards us. Time is never to be wasted or taken for granted. But without knowing where you want to go and what you value most, you can easily become stagnant and lose the opportunity. With a long-term goal in mind, it makes you focus your limited energy on each step towards it each day.
What does your future look like? Let’s think about what is possible for you and create a vision of it. Make this a “dream goal”. That way, if you fall short, you’ll still achieve more than if you had set goals for something that is probable, or likely. The most successful people in any field didn’t get there by setting goals that were realistic or expected. Instead, they aimed to do something extraordinary!
Avoid making your vision about a single event that would represent your success. You don’t want to build up pressure on one tournament (the mental approach to every tournament should be the same). I like to instill in my students that there’s no such thing as a “big tournament” or round, they are all big. Thinking that way helps you develop high performance habits for every moment, not just ones you consider “big”.
Visualize yourself winning many tournaments and see the player that you will have become and skills that you will have developed to achieve it. Make it more about the person you will have become, than the award.
Write down your short-term (1-3 years) and long-term (5-10 years) vision and create a picture for it in your mind. Make it a goal to visualize your “vision” a few times per week. When you see it repeatedly in your mind, it will lead to greater self-belief and less self-doubt which makes you do everything with more effort and determination.
Next, think about what it could be that could get in the way of that goal? How will you overcome this? By doing this, you start to figure out solutions to the challenges that could arise along the way.
Purpose and Motivation
“When I was a young player, I had no visions in my head of fans and trophies. I basically sought 3 things from the game: To improve at it, to compete at it and to win at it.” – Jack Nicklaus
I’ve put purpose and motivation together because they are closely linked. Although it’s a positive step to create a vision for your future, you need to know why it is that you want that life for yourself. Your vision can give you a look at your future life so you can decide if you really want it. With time being the most valuable thing, we need to think very carefully about how we will spend it. What it is that truly motivates you to put effort into achieving it. How will becoming a champion golfer give your life more meaning? What will it represent?
Your motivation towards your goals will help you give it everything you’ve got and get you through the inevitable setbacks and struggles ahead.
I’d like you to ask yourself:
“Why this vision for my future and not something else?”
“Why will I spend my limited time working hard to pursue this particular endeavor?”
“What is it about this vision/goal that is going to add meaning and purpose to my life?”
Why is it that I want to compete?
Keep peeling back the layers with further “why?” questions until you get to the root of why it is that you are pursuing it.
Your long-term success is the accumulation of all the focused effort during each day along the way. What it is that motivates you to put in that effort, will have a big effect on whether you achieve your goals and how happy your pursuit of them will make you. It has to have a deep meaning for you to be successful.
Your vision is your destination, whereas your goals are the steps that take you there. We will discuss the Goal Setting Process in Module 7.
Personal Values and Player Pledge
Results will come and go and there will be many things that are out of your control on your journey. However, certain things will need to be consistent throughout each day and each round. These will be your “Player Values” which you can think of as your “mission statement” for how you will practice and play. What will be at the core of the player/person that you want to become? This has to be thought of as more important than the scores and results you achieve along the way. Your values are the guiding principles for your thinking, behaviors and actions. What is it that you stand for and the values that you hold highest? Performance psychologist Michael Gervais asks his students to create a “Personal Philosophy Statement” which encapsulates these values.
- Start by writing a list of all the values that you would like to bring to your practice and play. What values will it take for you to be your best? Examples of these are:
- Discipline
- Effort
- Focus
- Ambition
- Commitment
- Positive Attitude
- Courage
- Adaptability
- Humility
- Being competitive
- Gratitude
- Poise (Controlling Emotions)
- Self-compassion
- Being present
- Patience
- Acceptance
- Honesty
- Think about highest priority values and use them to create a “Player Pledge” or “Player Identity”, which speaks to who you are and how you want to be in each practice session and round. This pledge can remind you of your values at any time, such as being present to every moment, focus, mental toughness, confidence, competing relentlessly no matter where you stand. Before and during each round you can use your motto to make sure you are upholding your values. As you will see in module 2, you will make your pledge before every round on your mental game scorecard.
Thanks for reading. Please complete these exercises ahead of my next lesson which will be delivered to your inbox in the next few days.
Exercises
What is your long-term vision? (5-10 years)
What is your short-term vision? (1-3 years)
Why do you want to achieve them?
What are the values that you want to bring to every round and practice session?
Write our your “Player Philosophy Statement” in less that 100 words.
What is your “motto” that will remind you of your values?