Careful what you focus on …
I was watching some of the coverage of the recent, Safeway Open PGA Golf Tournament and I happened to take notice of a conversation between Graham DeLaet and his caddie in the final round of the event.
The conversation revolved around an approach shot to the green and whether or not Graham had enough club to clear the bunker on the front, right side. What interested me the most was that Graham’s last comment before hitting the shot was to the effect of “as long as I’m not in that right bunker, I’ll be ok”.
Guess where he ended up? Yup, right in the bunker.
Even the pro’s sometimes put attention to what they don’t want instead of what they do want, and find themselves in trouble because of it.
These guys are so good mechanically that they seldom miss a shot. However, where they get bit is when they second guess or put their attention to what they don’t want, as Graham did here.
Good to know we’re not alone.
“What we focus on we attract”.
That is the feature topic of this article and the foundation of my Mental Fitness Coaching practice.
It’s a philosophy I developed called “Yellow Car” and works as follows:
Yellow cars aren’t very common, however if you put attention to them and make the effort to look for them you’ll be amazed at how many you see.
When I was a kid and our family would take road trips, my Dad used to have us look for yellow cars to keep us busy (and shut us up) and pass the time. I would focus so hard on Yellow Cars to ensure I would not be beat by my sister (ok, I was a little competitive).
Interestingly, not only would I count more Yellow Cars than she did, I would continue to see Yellow Cars for days to follow.
I realize now, that what I had done was train my brain to create a new habit…in this case focusing on Yellow Cars. And when I focused on them, they’d show up.
This concept led me to further research, which concluded, if we can do it with Yellow Cars, why not anything else?
And low and behold, when you focus on bunkers and water hazards the ball tends to go there…yet when you only see fairways and greens, the game seems easy and low scores follow.
I want to challenge you to look for Yellow Cars this week. Whether on your way to work or school, to the golf course, rink, or field for practice. Look for Yellow Cars. Look for Yellow Cars in parking lots, look for Yellow Cars on the street, even look for Yellow Cars in peoples driveways. And see how many Yellow Cars you see in a week. (I even encourage you to keep track and send me your findings).
Then, after seeing how quickly and easily Yellow Cars appear, determine what it is in your golf game, or in your life that you’d like to attract more of. Maybe it’s more fairways, or better ball striking. Or maybe it’s a better mark in an English class or perhaps more money.
Whatever it might be, put the same effort in as you do for the Yellow Cars.
When you do, you’ll be surprised at the results.
“What we focus on we attract” That’s the Yellow Car Philosophy.
Michael White,
Mental Fitness Coach
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