Habits are difficult things, Most often the term is associated in a derogatory sense. i.e. these are bad habits. Any smoker will tell you! There are good habits of course, but for the moment, let’s work on the basis that the habitual way you are playing includes some bad habits that you’d like to be rid of. But first a warning. Every single thing that we do (good or bad) started with a positive intention – and usually some aspect of a habit retains some form of original positive intention. We as human beings ONLY do something positive. So, no matter what your habit, there is something positive in it for you – if we can, we want to retain that aspect.

So, remember, everything that you do has a positive intention for you – this applies to everybody else on the planet as well. I’d like you to put your moral objections aside just for a moment to consider if someone who takes a gun into a school classroom and shoots 20 kids at their desks actually had a positive intention for himself? It may be, in your map of the world, deluded, cruel, sadistic, mad, whatever, but in their map of the world, it had a positive intention. Just to reaffirm here, I am NOT advocating that anyone should follow such intentions under any circumstances – go and get some help you sicko, now.

When you step up to the tee and go through an habitual routine telling yourself that the last time you played this hole you sliced it into the woods, or “I always top it in the bunker” – you have, believe me, a positive intention… even though you are setting yourself up to fail. Or perhaps you have the mantra “I never win tournaments, I’m just not good enough” running through your head – it is to protect you from winning! Obviously your unconscious mind is clear that you can not win a tournament because your egotistical nature would cause your spouse to up and leave you after recounting the winning stroke for the 1000th time.

So, how do we rid ourselves of habits, well, it can be a lengthy process. See, if you get rid of the ‘H’, you still have ‘a bit’. You get rid of the ‘a’, and you still have a ‘bit’. You get rid of the b, and you still have ‘it’. To get rid of the ‘i’, you have to look to the ‘t’ and choose to be at cause for your life, your game and not at the effect of the whims and fancies of others or the environment. If you truly want to improve your game, there are going to be some sacred cows to slaughter.