South African golfer Gary Player won 9 championships during his career and authored or co-wrote 36 books about the game.
One of his most notable quotes is: “The more I work and practice, the luckier I seem so get.”
The same is true of life and business. Whether you are on par with Tiger Woods or just struggling to make your way through the windmill at your local putt-putt, the truth is that practice makes perfect.
Actually, that’s not entirely true.
As my Dad once told me while we were on the course, “Only perfect practice makes perfect.”
You can get really good at playing poorly. So here’s a few insights about personal and business success viewed through the lens of Global Oscillation at Low Frequency (GOLF).
1. Use the right strategy for your long game vs. your short game.
One’s “long game” refers to your first drive on a hole, getting the ball from the tee either onto the green or as close to it as possible. In business, as in golf, long game requires POWER and DISTANCE
Achieving long-term goals demands you muster:
- The power or resources necessary.
- The ability to stay focused on distant possibilities.
- Sacrificing immediate payoffs for greater rewards in time
2. You also have to use the right strategy for your short game.
The “short game” refers to getting your ball across the green and into the hole. In golf and business, a skillful short game requires both FINESSE and ACCURACY
To achieve your short-term goals, be certain to rally:
- Skills that enable you to pinpoint exactly what needs to occur and the best way to make it happen.
- The capacity to stay on target as well as avoid pitfalls or distractions.
- Aptitude at overcoming obstacles, being persuasive, and closing the deal.
3. Staying focused and making good choices is critical.
In golf, you have a variety of clubs to choose from for any given stroke. Therefore, be certain to use the right club for the right situation. Clubs are numbered, with the number corresponding to the slope of the club face and how it will affect the ball.
The lower the number, the farther your distance and the lower the ball will travel. The higher the number, the higher your ball will go into the air and the shorter its distance will be.
In business and in life decisions, you can think of your resources and choices like types of clubs.
- First, save your high-power or expensive resources for your long game to achieve more over a longer period of time.
- Second, use your technical abilities, sales skills, or relational connections to clinch the win when the situation is time sensitive and requires delicacy.
Know also that sometimes you can pick the perfect club or make the perfect decision and things still go wrong. Don’t get bent out of shape when this happens and launch your proverbial clubs into the pond.
As Pro golfer Mark McCumber said, “Forget the last shot. It takes so long to accept that you can’t always replicate your swing. The only thing you can control is your attitude towards the next shot.”
4. Remember wind and gravity.
In golf, the circumstances are always changing, causing the player to have to adjust constantly to navigate them. On the long game, the wind plays a major factor on your ball’s course and distance. On the short game, remember the effects of gravity. Putting a straight line to the hole and not accounting for the pull of gravity could leave your ball several feet off target.
So this means, in both your personal life and in your business, you must develop contingency plans.
- Anticipate unexpected pulls of staff shortages or competition.
- Adjust your strategy to account for the strong breezes of shifting customer desires or a changing business landscape.
5. Lastly, the victory goes to those who are the most prepared and the most driven.
In my grandfather’s old TV Repair shop, I remember reading as a child a funny plaque he had hanging by the door. It read: “Old golfers never die, they just lose their balls.”
- This is an important reminder to never lose your courage and tenacity.
Operating a business and living your best life are both complex endeavors that can take a lifetime to master.
- Like the game of golf, you are often competing not only against the course and other players, but against yourself.
That being said, I’ll close with a quote from the great Arnold Palmer:
“The game has such a hold on golfers because they compete not only against an opponent, but also against the course, against par, and most surely- against themselves.”
Give yourself a run for your money…and you’ll make it. Push yourself beyond your comfort zone…and you’ll grow. Compete to win…and, with the right timing and strategy, you will.
Until next time, don’t just be transformed: be Kinged.
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