Feature Article
Abolish Your Comfort Zone – It’s Killing Your Golf Game
By Wade Pearse
Your comfort zones are destroying your ability to shoot low scores. Whenever you are about to move outside your comfort zone your swing will “mysteriously” betray you. Yet is it really so mysterious?
We all have what I call an inner game thermostat. It governs your inner game temperature, so to speak. Your comfort zone is like a climate controlled room. If it gets too cool then it’s time to heat up. If it gets too hot the air conditioner turns on to cool things down.
So your inner thermostat does exactly what it is preprogrammed to do – bring your game back to *normal*! How? By producing what appears to be the “wrong swing at the wrong time”. Yet in reality it is actually the “right swing at the right time!” Your inner game thermostat calmly runs beneath your conscious awareness. Perfectly controlling your game.
Have you ever had the feeling that you have no idea where the ball is going?! This can happen when we reach either side of our comfort zone.
The same goes for when you are approaching 80. Yet there’s something funny about this settings on the low side of our comfort zones! The thermostat seems to kick in with even more authority!
(Have you ever noticed that even though your scores might be climbing and you dislike it it feels easier and somehow more acceptable than going really low? I’m not saying you don’t want to go low. I’m saying that you are *familiar* with shooting higher scores because you’ve done this more often than shoot really low scores.)
As you get nearer to breaking your personal best it kicks on and returns your game to “normal”. How? You card a couple bogies in a row and guess what? You magically shoot 80! Your comfort zone is maintained*…
Comfort zones are a long and slow death to any hopes you have of reaching your potential. Idon’t care what kind of goal setting plan, or mental game worksheet you follow. Your internal setting for what you “believe” about your game is what calls the shots. Pun fully intended.
There are specific strategies for creating new settings on your inner game thermostat. Nothing complicated yet they are extremely powerful and effective. But hey, only you know how much you want to break out of your comfort zone.
…it’s kind of like the proverbial frog in a pot of water. Set the frog in a pot of water and slowly bring it to a boil and the frog stays there because it is comfortable along the way…
Reach the next level in your game and make the changes you want now. After all, the water is slowly coming to a boil…
S² Tip
Comfort zones are a long and slow death to any hopes you have of reaching your potential. Break free from your comfort zone!
Success Story
Congratulations to the 2013 European Solheim Cup team for the first ever victory on American soil. The European team showed great focus and poise on their way to a dominating 18-10 victory!
In Another’s Words…
“Pressure is a word that is misused in our vocabulary. When you start thinking of pressure, it’s because you’ve started to think of failure.”
— Tommy Lasorda, baseball manager