3 Obstacles That Keep You From Playing Better Golf

3 obstacles stand in your way of playing better golf, playing at a different level or even having a more enjoyable golf experience.

I share with you in this episode what they are, how you can pin point your personal obstacles and how you go about overcoming them.

Most golfers work to play better so they can feel better. 
I help people feel better on the golf course and then they play better. 
If you want help, go to KathyHartWood.as..me/free and schedule a time to talk with me about what is possible for you.

Transcript

Welcome to Above Par. I'm your host, Kathy Hartwood. I show you how to take more of your talent to the golf course without practicing harder, taking more lessons, or buy a new equipment. I show you how to end the frustration of underperforming so you can start playing to your potential. This is where you are gonna learn how to think above par,

so you can play below par. Let's get to it. Well, hey there, welcome to Above par. It's nice to have you here. If this is your first time listening, thanks for tuning in and this is gonna be a great call. I think you're gonna find a lot of value out of this for 2022. Most of the things that I talk about on here are about the mental game,

but I like to think of what I do as more than mental game. You know, I'm technically a golf pro, a teaching pro. I'm a life coach. I put it all together. I help people improve the the way that they think on the golf course. But it also is a lot about your life, like what you do on the golf course you can take to your life and what you do,

what happens in your life, you take to the golf course. The the game of golf reveals a lot of the things that we have going on in the, in our life and how you manage your brain and how you handle all the things that come up with the game of golf really shows and reveals how well you are at managing your brand in general,

because the golf game, things happen really quickly. We don't have a lot of time to adjust. So there is learning the mental game, which is I think the smaller component of how to think over individual shots, how to process our emotions after a shot or before we hit a shot. And then there's the part about our life that carries on onto the golf course.

That's our relationship with ourselves, how we treat ourselves. Maybe some of our fears of failure or embarrassment. Our perfectionism can show up. Relationships that we have can show up on the golf course anxiety. If you don't deal with anxiety very well off of the golf course, it's gonna show up a little heightened on the golf course. Just because of the way the game is,

it moves pretty quickly and our brain processes a lot of things on the golf course is creating a lot of fear and danger for us and our brains. So how we manage our brain and our thoughts and our emotions just really show up on the golf course. So anyway, so I'm gonna do a little life coaching here with you today about talking about you creating a goal and some of the obstacles that are gonna be in your way.

And you can apply this to any part of your life. You can pick any goal, whether it's weight loss or something you're doing with your job or a project that you have. It does not matter. Or with your golf game, your goal could be to lower your handicap this season. It could be to sign up for a tournament, go through a qualifier.

It could be to join a league, it could be to shoot a certain score. One of the things I don't recommend as a goal is winning a tournament. And the reason I don't think winning a tournament is a great goal is because there's so many factors involved that we can't control. It takes a little bit of luck and it takes a little bit of bad luck for your opponent,

for you to win a tournament. So many things need to line up. So we really can't control other people in our event or our opponents. So we can't control what they're going to do. You could play a great round and somebody comes in, you know, 10, 10 shots lower than they normally do and just play it outta their butt. And you can't do a dang thing about that,

even though you get the opportunity to be very proud about the way that you showed up. The things that you wanna look for when you're playing in a tournament is really how well you prepared how many shots you hit from a state that you play your best golf from. I call that the three C's comm, certain or confident. How many times you able to control or manage your emotions and your thoughts on the golf course?

Did you maintain your focus and concentration throughout the round? And I think if you, you walk off 18 and you can give yourself a pat on the back for all of that, then I think the results are going to come from that. You're gonna be able to make more swings with your real talent, all of your talent, whatever it is, doesn't matter what your handicap is.

This doesn't apply to people who are only really good golfers. If you're a 30 handicap, take all of your 30 handicap ability onto the golf course. Chances are, if you're a 30 handicap, a 20 handicap or 15 handicap, if you were able to take all your talent on the golf course, your handicap would go down, right? Because you're holding your back and yourself back someway with either the way that you're thinking,

how you're getting in your own way with your emotions. The the verbiage that we say to ourselves, how we treat ourselves, some of the emotions we're not willing to experience, they show up as in our ability to move our body the way that we want. So when you can free that up, I bet your handicap goes down as a result. But you wanna show up.

Your goal is to show up and take all your talent on, on the golf course and walk off and be really proud of the way that you manage your brain, the way that you manage your emotions and your thoughts, the way that you treated yourself. So I wanna talk to you about three obstacles to look for as you move towards your goal. So you pick a goal and you wanna ask yourself,

what is in the way of me getting to that goal? So let's use the example that perhaps you wanted to drop your handicap by three or four shots, and that's your goal this year. So clearly there's an obstacle in the way of you getting there, or you'd already be there, you'd already be producing that result. So what needs to happen for you to drop your handicap by three shots?

What are the first obstacles you're gonna have? You're either gonna have a skill obstacle, which is number one, meaning that you need to learn a skill that you don't currently have that is keeping you from dropping your handicap by three shots. So you wanna be curious, what is that skill? It might be I need to learn how to hit fairway bunker shots.

I need to learn how to hit shots on uneven lies, bunker shots, lag putts, need to curve my ball less, curve my ball more. Whatever you get to decide. But there could be a skill obstacle that is holding you back. Then you wanna ask yourself, how am I gonna go about figuring that out? How am I gonna learn it?

What are the steps I'm gonna take to learn that skill? And you wanna map that out through your season going forward. Number two is you could have a belief obstacle. You have thoughts or beliefs about you and your ability to get to that goal that are holding you back. If you didn't have those beliefs, you would already be at your goal. So you wanna be very curious on what those are.

You could have the belief that I'm not good enough. I don't, I'm not athletic enough, it's gonna take too much time. I don't have time. I don't know how to hit that shot. So many people are better than I am. I never can put a good round together. You might have beliefs in there that you've thought over and over again.

That's why they become a belief that are holding you back and keeping you from getting to your goal. So be curious on what those beliefs are as well. And then the third one is you could have an emotional obstacle, which means that you are not willing to ex experience a certain emotion. That emotion is keeping you from reaching your goals. You might not be able to deal with your frustration or your anger on the golf course,

and that is keeping you from showing up on that next shot with all your talent. It's carrying over to multiple shots or multiple holes. You may have a fear of failure and you're not willing to go out there and put all your game out there and it's getting in the way of you being able to swing. You might have a fear of embarrassment. So when people are around and watching you play,

you crumble a little bit. You get preoccupied thinking about and worrying about what they're thinking. You might have some anxiety that shows up during competition and you're not willing to experience that or you're struggling with experiencing that. And that emotion is keeping you from reaching your goals. It could be one obstacle, it could be all three of these obstacles, but you wanna identify what is keeping you from getting to the goal that you wanna have.

And one of the ways that you can go about doing that is future selfing. I don't even, I don't know if that's a word, but you wanna picture yourself in the future. What would your future self, the person who has achieved your goal, what skills do they have that you currently don't have? Can they hit certain shots that you can't hit right now?

Can they do certain things in the golf course that you can't do right now? That future version of yourself? And in in this example, it's a three shots lower in your handicap. Does that person believe things differently than you believe right now? Do they believe that they can do it? That they can put a good round together, that it's worth the time they can find the time that they're talented enough and to get to that goal,

which is a lower handicap than you have right now? Are you in that future version of yourself able to experience different emotions than you couldn't do right now? And one of the ways too, if you're got stuck on that, look back to when you first started playing golf, right? That version of yourself is totally different than the version of you right now.

That person had different fears and emotional obstacles that got in their way that you don't experience right now, that you have overcome. They had thoughts and beliefs when you first started playing that this is gonna be hard. I'm gonna embarrass myself. Oh my gosh, this is gonna take a long time. I don't know if I can do this. That you don't experience right now,

that you have different beliefs right now and skills for sure, right? There's so many different skill obstacles that from a beginner to where you are right now that have shifted, right? When you started playing golf as a beginner, you probably never imagined you'd be where you are right now for many of you, right? Your brain couldn't even fathom picturing that as a possibility.

And you either stepped into this version of yourself right now, either with a lot of effort and a lot of work, or you did it an easier way. And the easier way is for you to start deciding ahead of time what those obstacles are, and then figure out your path to overcoming them. So you are where you are right now, and you wanna be in that future self,

like a lower handicap or playing in the club championship, joining a league, shooting lower numbers, whatever it is for you or something off the golf course, a project or a fitness goal, whatever it is, your brain is going to have to shift to become that version of yourself. You're gonna have to stop believing certain things. You are going to have to allow yourself to experience certain emotions to get to that.

It could be even courage to get to that place where you need to be. And you're gonna have to learn some skills. And when you can divide up your goal into pieces like this, I need to learn these skills. I have to stop believing this and start believing that. I need to be able to witness and experience my fears and my fear of failure or embarrassment.

I have to deal with my anxiety. I have to allow myself to be frustrated, know where it's coming from, and let it pass so it doesn't affect other shots. When you could break it down to those P pieces, it becomes so much more attainable. Attainable. Now you have a path and a plan. So as you look towards your season coming up and you pick a golf goal or any goal,

ask yourself those three questions. What obstacles are in my way? Is there a skill that I need to learn? And how am I gonna learn it? What are the steps I'm gonna take? Is there a belief? Whether there things that I'm thinking right now that I don't need to think anymore? And what do I need to think and believe to achieve my goal?

And what emotions are holding me back? What am I not willing to experience or feel so that I can reach my goal? I want you to achieve your goals, whatever they are, however you need to break them down, get outta your own way and start stepping into that version of yourself that has achieved the goals and done the things and played in the tournament,

and participated in the leagues and shot the scores, right? I'm with you 100% along the way. If you need any help, you can reach out to me. I'm happy to coach you as well. You can jump on a call, you can find all of that information@kathyhartwood.com. Have an amazing week and I will talk to you next Wednesday. Bye.