Life Skills Are Also Golf Skills

The skills necessary to thrive during a round of golf are the very same skills required to thrive in one’s life.

I thought about leaving it at that, saying nothing more. But perhaps some justification, some elaboration, some defence indeed, may be helpful.

We’ve all heard and/or said, repeatedly, that a round of golf brings similar trials and tribulations, highs and lows, good bounces and the other, as life. A round of golf provides, in fact, a microcosm of life itself, at least emotionally so.

A typical round of golf includes events and experiences that beget a full range of human emotions, from exhilaration to despair, joy to sorrow, and everything in between. Golfers often face great challenges and overcome them, realizing a great outcome. And oftentimes, these great challenges are not overcome. Similarly golfers often face golden opportunities, birdie opportunities, and sometimes miss.

Each new round of golf mimics the beginning of a new year, January 1, no matter the actual date of the round. Each tee block mimics the beginning of a new day. The parallels are endless.

In life, as in golf, we all face both good times and the other. We live through events that cause us to experience a full range of human emotions. We face challenges and overcome. We face challenges and sometimes succumb. And we find golden opportunities, with great potential, and sometimes miss.

The key, most teachers seem to agree, to a fulfilling and joyful life is to maintain a sense of balance. To feel the full range of emotions, deal with them, and then move on to experience more of life. We must focus upon what we want, not that which we want not. We must be in the moment, living life now, not lamenting the past nor fretting o’er the future. We must maintain perspective, not imbuing events nor circumstances with more importance than they truly embody. We must love and respect ourselves, just as we love and respect others. We must, above all else, enjoy life. For, why else might we be here?

In golf, it is the same. The keys to a fulfilling and joyful life also unlock the possibility of a fulfilling and joyful round of golf. A golfer must maintain the skills to feel and process the full range of human emotions. The golfer must focus upon that which he/she wants. The golfer must live in the now, in the moment, and he/she must certainly maintain perspective. Golfers of all abilities, every golfer, must maintain a healthy respect and love of themselves, of their skills, of their “game.”

And above all else, a golfer must seek to enjoy each round of golf. For indeed, why else is he/she there?

Make it a great day! For yes, you do have the power to do so!