7.27.2009

A Slice of Life

I have played golf regularly for 45 years. And I have regularly produced the same results for 45 years. Last week after another mediocre two rounds of golf, I actually gave some thought to this endless plateau of mediocrity. I was surprised by two insights:


The first was that I never thought about how long I’ve been accepting this poor performance. The second insight was how comfortable I was with playing golf (an activity I love) so poorly.


But something else showed up during my self-inflicted golf lobotomy: I was sick of it.


I decided that I either needed to change and get better or get out of the game. What I was specifically tired of doing was slicing my driver off the tee. Aside from all the problems it produces for scoring well, a slice is considered a weak golf shot. I’ve always viewed golf as both a game and a metaphor for my life and now I found myself looking at my game and my life through this “slice” framework and I did not like what I saw.


Something needed to change and so I set about to do just that. In one day I changed my grip, my stance, my ball position at address and my swing plane. Most golfers are both inflexible and superstitious about each of these elements of the golf shot and to change just one is often a trial of patience and discipline. My decision to change “everything” was a bit liberating and it also put me on tilt because I was having a difficult time remembering what I was doing; what was the priority and how to do it all?


There was also something else I experienced; being a beginner. I was almost back to square 1 and while it was hard (still is after playing my first round with all this new golf swing stuff) it was very refreshing and I felt light.


Most all my work with my clients is fundamentally about changing their “golf swing.” I realized that it has been some time since I had a major change project of my own on the line like my clients do. I do need to change my golf game and get better and all these changes to my swing are a challenge but it’s just golf and I’m still only destine to play with my chucklehead friends on the weekend. So the change edge here is both real and not significant to real impact.


What this golf lobotomy really highlighted was how I’ve settled in to my work and lost contact with the edge. I’ve been playing smaller then my aspirations. What I see is that my work needs the same overhaul as my golf swing. Otherwise I’ll continue to play weak and hit my shots due right into the rough. I’ll keep you posted.