At Golf Guru, we ground the majority of our content in positive psychology, which asks:
‘What’s good in your life?’
Compared to the traditional psychology approach which more often focuses on:
‘What’s wrong with you, and how can it be fixed?’
In golf, it can be helpful to know your weaknesses, sure, and to spend some time developing them. But when you become so exclusively focused on what you’re lacking (as most coaching will make you do), it can become draining and disheartening. In the end you almost forget all the strengths that you’re lucky enough to have.
It’s by identifying, enhancing and exploiting what you do well that you’re likely to have higher levels of self-belief, vitality and energy. By using your strengths more frequently you’ll become more resilient to bad shots. You’ll have higher self-esteem.
We’ve all played golf with someone who putts weirdly, but drains everything. Whose swing looks weird, but never misses a fairway. My Dad always chips with a 7iron (even behind bunkers) but seems to get up and down from everywhere. These kinds of golfers are ones to watch out for because they figured out their strengths and focus on those. Their mind isn’t getting in their own way.
So, to find out and focus on your strengths, ask yourself:
- Which part of my game do I get complimented most on?
- What are the shots I’m most proud of?
- What do I love about the game of golf?
- Which type of practice gives me the most enjoyment?
Whether you’ve been playing golf for 30 years or 30 minutes, focus on the answers to these types of positive questions and you’ll derive consistent pleasure, engagement, and more meaning from your golf.
The kind of mental wellbeing that can come as a result is beneficial for all of us golfers; it can have a surprisingly big impact on the way you play, the way you think about score and your overall relationship with the game of golf.
So in summary – take some time to remind yourself what you’re great at and, as a result, you’ll have more great days on the course.
