By: David Novak
Visualize that time you were on the 18th green during your club tournament. You have a straight, 15-footer lined up. It’s an important shot that could mean a win in the tournament. You take a deep breath and draw your putter back. The putt just skirts the hole, and frustration sinks in. You think, “maybe I should have practiced more? Do I need a new putter? Would coaching help?” Any number of things could have helped you to make that putt, but where do you even start?
You know berating yourself is not what you need, but maybe you can help yourself in other ways. You also know you can’t change your natural capabilities, but with the right awareness and actions, you can work with what you have and create conditions that give yourself the best chance to thrive.
Enter self-coaching. With self-coaching, you’ll learn that you don’t need to reject your fundamental nature or change who you are at your core to reach your full potential. What you need is to develop a good understanding of yourself and what drives you, and to focus in on what will help you to grow and thrive. Wherever you are in your career, personal life or golf game, self-coaching will let you unlock your full potential.
Want to get started? Ask yourself a key question: what is getting in the way of your joy?
This question will kickstart your self-coaching journey by helping you better understand who you are, where you want to go, and how to get yourself there. Take some time with it, and peel back the answer.
Write down your first answer, but then dig a little deeper–what’s the reason behind that reason. Sure, that botched putt is standing in the way of your joy. But what made you botch the putt? Is it the stressful job that’s stealing your focus? Or the lack of time to get to the driving range, where your mind can really just let go? Once you’ve got to an answer that feels a little scary and uncomfortable, you’ll know you’ve hit the bullseye.
Ready to take the next step on your self-coaching journey? Jason Goldsmith– performance coach to elite athletes like Jason Day, Justin Rose, Emiliano Grillo and many others–and I have written a new book called Take Charge of You: How Self-Coaching Can Transform Your Life and Your Career. Just launching this week, the book is designed to take you from this first tiny step to giant leaps forward in your self-awareness and potential.
This book is meant to be more than just something you put back on the shelf. It’s meant to be something you use, a blueprint to take you from where you are now to where you want to go. It will give you exercises and tools that will help you practice the skills you need to consistently move yourself forward, just like you practice your swing.
Invest in yourself the way you invest in your equipment–get your self-coaching journey started today!