Play your own game!

I had the opportunity to attend a five day golf camp at the end of May.  I learned many things during the instruction time.  One major lesson that I learned was to play your own game.  It’s an analogy that can be applied to your career as well.  Following are some thoughts:

Thought 1:  What others are doing.  When you play golf it’s easy to watch those who you are playing with and try to emulate their strokes, whether you have the same skill or not.  What happens more times than I’d like, the shot doesn’t turn out the way my playing partner’s did.  If I had thought of my own skills I would have done something different with a better result.  Lesson:  It’s not important to do what others are doing.  It is more effective when you’re following your game plan, using your unique skills to get to where you want to go.

Thought 2:  Advice.  On the golf course your playing partners may have lots of advice for you – where to hit your shot, how to putt, what club to use, what you might be doing wrong.  The advice may be good or bad.  When you take someone else’s advice you’re responsible for the outcome – not the advisor.  Lesson:  Listen to all you want from others and then do what you feel is right for you – use your intuition, it won’t steer you wrong.

Thought 3:  Only praise.  I’ve played with people who empathize too much when a shot goes wrong – they will be audible in their reaction and say things like “Oh dear”, “Bad shot”, “Uggghhhh”.  You already know you hit a bad shot, taking on someone else’s negative energy about it can keep you in a funk.  In golf, you’ve got to move on from the bad shots and approach all the next ones in a positive way.  Lesson:  Concentrate on the positive messages, don’t allow others to empathize with things that go wrong.  Be quick and generous with your praise of others.

Thought 4:  Move on.  As stated in thought 3, you’ve got to move on quickly and be positive about the future.  Dwelling on a bad shot keeps you in the past and doesn’t help your game at all.  Lesson:  When you’ve made a mistake, evaluate what went wrong and implement the fix for the next time.

Thought 5:  What others want for you.  You may have a playing partner who wants you to improve your short game, play better, putt well, do what they are doing well.  Living up to someone else’s expectations can be exhausting.  Playing your own game is about setting your own expectations, deciding what you want, improving incrementally.  Lesson:  Support and encouragement from others is wonderful.  Set your own goals and expectations – you alone live with the results.

Thought 6:  Experts.  There will always be people who play better than I do, have wonderful skills.  Then there are the professionals who look so good on TV, hitting every shot well.  Comparing myself to them is unrealistic and frustrating at times.  Lesson:  Learn from the experts, emulate the experts, set realistic expectations for your own performance.

What has worked for you?  Do you ever get frustrated with your own performance?  Are you being realistic when that happens?  Leave your comments below.

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