New Year’s Resolution

Happy New Year! I realize it is a bit late to say that, but I’d like to help you have a “happier” New Year. Hmm, you say what? That’s right – a happier New Year! How can you do that? By creating better habits. You see, we’ve all made New Year resolutions only to see them not materialize, year after year! So, if you want a “happier” New Year then this must change!
Ok, so you want to play the best golf of your life this year! Now I’m assuming this may be your New Year’s resolution. If not, you want to at least improve your handicap by 3 shots. How will you make this happen? If you investigate the word “resolution,” you’ll find it’s like saying that you intend or are determined or have a purpose to do something. By writing this down you have created a monster, one that is on a mission to get something done! This is the power of the brain when you have intent and determination while acting with a purpose. A good resource to learn about this is my new 5 Under with Roger Knick podcast. We’re launching our first episode today, featuring one of our young golfers, John VanDerLaan, Jr. He talks about his intention to become a PGA Tour player. I think you’ll enjoy it! You can listen here.
In order to accomplish your resolution, you must create a plan of action. Once you have a plan then you must be disciplined to act on it daily to create a habit that makes it stick. The great thing about a plan, is that you do not have to think about what must happen, it is already written down for you ahead of time. This makes it much easier to act. If you’re looking to improve your golf game this year, for you to be happier, it makes sense to work with a coach to create your plan, with your intentions of improving areas of weakness. If you have been stuck with your game and not improving, it’s likely you do not have a good plan and while you may have good intentions to improve, your resolution is not strong enough to bring it to fruition. This is not all your fault, so don’t beat yourself up about it. Talk with your coaches, have a better understanding of what needs to happen, have a basic plan to get started, create the habit of doing something daily, even if it nothing more than reading your plan and doing one thing on it. It will help you create discipline each day to act. By the time you do this 10 or more days in a row, I bet you’ll feel more motivated to do more.
Resolutions fail all the time. It isn’t because you made a bad proposal. Most likely, you didn’t have a plan to follow. The effort it takes daily to think about all the stuff that you need to do just to get started becomes too hard to create the habit of action. You see, you already have enough to think about just to survive your busy life, let alone trying to make more decisions about improving! Creating the habit of action, is merely a function of creating small actions that build to results over time. Resolutions fail for another reason; people act as though it is a means to an end and not something that is infinite. It’s like when you make a resolution to lose weight, but it isn’t about just losing weight for that year. It’s about being healthier in life. In order to do that you make small changes to your diet and activities, thus you lose weight and have a happier New Year. Improving your handicap is similar. You want to have a healthier game, thus you must change how you practice and you will lose strokes and have a happier New Year!
Enjoy Your Journey

Updated 10/25/2022

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