I want to with the British Open next year is a SMART goal. It’s specific (The British Open), it’s measurable (Win), it’s attainable (it’s an ‘Open’), it’s realistic (a good, consistent golfer can achieve this), it’s timely (next year).

Now there’s a whole lot of sub-goals, or outcomes, involved in getting to this point, but as a goal, it’s pretty good. So, what’s your SMART goal for your golf?

Some SMART examples:
I want to win the Augusta Masters in ten years time.
I want to break 80 this year.
I want to play 40 times this year.
I want to drive over 240 yards by October.

Whatever your goal, I’d like to ask you this: “For what purpose?”

Your answer is important. Keep asking yourself that same question for each response. This can take some time, but it’s so worth while – at the end you find the real driver (no pun intended) to help you achieve it. Here’s an example from one of our coaching sessions:
“I want to break 80 this year”
For what purpose?
“To improve my game”
For what purpose?
“So that I’ll know I’ve improved”
For what purpose?
“So that I can beat my friend”
For what purpose?
“‘cos I want to win”
For what purpose?
“Because I like to win”
For what purpose
“To prove I’m the better player
For what purpose? This went on for a while in a loop from winning to better player and round.
For what purpose winning and being the better player?
“To be happy”
For what purpose?
“To be at peace with myself”
“and satisfied”
“and joyful”

Once the loop is broken through, the real drivers often come flooding out.
For this individual – the ‘real’ reason to break 80 is to be satisfied, at peace and joyful – the winning and being the better player is just a confirmatory result.

The best and easiest way to do this is to work with someone else. They coach you through the ‘for what purpose?’ and not let go until you say something ‘valuable’. Again, you’ll know when this happens – you’ll in fact observe a big change in physiology – a ‘warm glow’ is how it is frequently described.

Why is this important? Well, you like to know why you’re doing something don’t you? Just imagine if everything you did, every day, had a known purpose for you. How great would that be?

So, where were we, oh yes, “Golf is a movement toward a goal” . What is your goal? The trouble with golf is that it is simple yet so amazingly complex. You might have a goal to reduce your handicap, play in the 70’s, win a tournament, beat your best buddy, win the Masters, drive the longest distance, get a hole-in-one. Whatever that goal is, we need to be absolutely clear about what it is.

To make this goal tangible, we need to describe it in our five senses: see, hear, touch, smell and taste. For those few people who say “I’ll just know it when it happens” – yes you probably will, but that doesn’t help you achieve it. For the committed Christian, that’s not a problem, because it won’t be you doing it, so think of this as preparing for precision praying.
What is your goal?
What will you see when you have achieved it?
What will you hear when you achieve it?
What will you feel when you achieve it?
Where is that feeling? Can you touch that feeling now?
What will you taste when you achieve it?
What will you smell when you achieve it?

Don’t over-worry if you don’t get answers to the last two – but maybe it’s the taste of champagne or the smell of rose petals cascading down from the ceiling at the celebratory dinner (you get it now?)

Now, there is an important distinction to make here. Your goal MUST be a positive goal. Let’s go though this because it’s at the heart of transforming your game and it is the essence of what every mental game coach, sports psychologist and peak performance consultant is trying to help you do.

So please, pay some attention now. Where where you? The TV just got switched on, or you can smell dinner cooking. Wherever you may have been, I hope you are coming back to me.
Now, whatever you do, “don’t think of a blue tree!”

What just happened? You thought of a blue tree didn’t you! I know you did, because that’s how your mind works.
Your unconscious mind cannot process negatives – it only receives commands. Your unconscious mind does not screen thoughts – that’s the job of your conscious mind. Your unconscious can not, not do something!

Basically, and this is not meant to be a scientific explanation of the way the brain operates, rather a much simplified understanding, when you read “Don’t think of a blue tree”, in order for you to consciously not think about it, your unconscious had to provide an image of a blue tree to your conscious mind to not think about! What this means is that your actions and behaviours will be the opposite of your desire if your present it with a negative.

As you settle in for your tee shot, you wiggle, you waggle and look up the fairway and think “I must not send the ball into those trees on the right”, guess what. Your ball goes straight for those trees. Why, because you just told yourself (not) to do it. “Whatever I do, I must not put the ball in the water”…. splash! “I must remember not to bend my arm at the elbow during the swing”… hook, topped, sliced – all depending on just when you did bend your elbow.

This inability to process negatives is why, for example, smokers trying to quit, fail. “don’t have a cigarette, don’t have a cigarette, DON”T HAVE A CIGARETTE!” as they slide one out of the pack, light up and inhale deeply (and with great satisfaction mixed with self-loathing and revulsion). I know, I’ve been there.

Dieters, have the same problem. “Don’t eat fatty foods, don’t open the fridge, don’t eat chocolate”.

Nick Faldo spent a couple of years restructuring his swing with his coach David Leadbetter. He struggled with the changes, but had accepted that things were allowed to get worse before they got better. By the time he entered the British Open at Muirfield in 1987, things hadn’t been seen to be much improved.
The evening before the tournament began, Nick walked to the 18th green at 10 in the evening – still with daylight on this warm Scottish summer evening. He stood there staring at the large yellow scoreboard. He imagined that it was late Sunday afternoon and the stands were filled with spectators. He saw the name Faldo on top of the leader board. He stared at it and smiled and knew he was home. Nick spent several minutes seeing himself the winner, sensing deeply the thrill of winning the British Open.
Faldo won the tournament. This is what vision is all about, not just seeing the end, but seeing the end at the end, with your own eyes, with your own ears, feelings, smells, tastes. You see the target, now step into the future having achieved your goal.