This Week’s Focus Point: Good Chip Shots
I love watching the Olympics and as an avid golfer, I’m thrilled that golf is back in the Games after a mere 104-year absence. Although some top names golfers opted out due to a mosquito, most of the best players in the world are competing.
One of those competitors is from Canada. Graham DeLaet found himself in second place after the first round (at the time of this writing). DeLaet is a regular PGA Tour player who has had limited success in his career. In fact, a few months ago, he withdrew from a tournament and took a self-imposed hiatus due to what he claimed on Twitter was his “anxiety over my short game.” Basically, a person with the skills to be a professional golfer had allowed anxiety and fear take hold of the mental side, and jarred his ability to unleash the skill he already had. This is not entirely uncommon in golf. Kudos to DeLaet for overcoming it.
While I’ve been known to allow anxiety damage my own golf game, it’s still just a game to me. For DeLaet and his colleagues, it’s their professional career; their business world. If they are susceptible to letting anxiety and fear devastate their talent, then we are as exposed to the same fate in our career. For us, it becomes manifested in different ways: fear of making calls, so you hide behind email; fear of confrontation so you allow a poor behavior in someone else to persist; fear in imperfection so you become paralyzed and get nothing accomplished; fear of looking bad, so you do nothing; fear of public speaking so you miss out on a promotion; fear of not being liked so you allow a problem employee to stay employed; fear of asking for help, so you never improve…
You get my drift. The best golfers in the world lose confidence that – gone unabated – will lead to fear and anxiety. The best business leaders, entrepreneurs and professionals also can lose confidence leading to unmet goals, guilt, and unhappiness. Be resilient. You haven’t forgotten your “skills:” take a deep breath, hit the reset button, go back to your “practice range,” and encourage yourself until you get back to where you need to be… with a simple tap-in for birdie.
Quote of the Week:
“Fear masks talent.”
~ Alan Weiss
Dan is an amazing coach. He not only guides to me a level of clarity that has been instrumental in achieving my goals, but also provided a role model for what I hope to achieve in my own business. He is charming and funny but also fearless and sharp. I recommend Dan with the utmost confidence. ~ Stacie Curtis, President – CW Solutions
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