“It’s confidence, confidence, confidence, confidence.”
Meg Mallon, Women’s Open Champion
Jack Nicklaus said, “Confidence is the golfer’s greatest weapon.”
All great golfers have this trait. Some people come to this trait easily and naturally, others have to work at it. But once you have it – your results skyrocket.
As the old joke goes, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” The answer is practice, practice, and practice.
One can not succeed at being the best unless you practice.
Lee Trevino said if you practice enough and get tremendous amount of confidence, and that’s where confidence comes from. It comes from practice. If you practice, you have confidence. Then you can withstand pressure.
Jack Nicklaus says there is no way you can overestimate the power of confidence or its results in golf. If you do not have faith in yourself, nobody is going to have faith in you.
I hope my golf game is going to improve.
I am going to try to get the ball out of the trap.
I keep taking lessons but nothing seems to help.
I should have shot better on the first nine.
I would have shot better on the first nine if only I had my lucky club with me.
I could have shot better on the last nine if only I did not triple bogey on the ninth hole. It threw off my game.
I should be shooting at least ten strokes less than what I am shooting now.
Do those sound familiar?
I call those confidence killers. Your language will have a direct effect on your golf game. If you are using the wrong kind of language, it is affecting your score. If you are using the right kind of language, you are scoring like a pro.
Le’ts look at some of those. Let’s imagine for a moment that you are not talking about golf. You are talking about having a dinner party and you are inviting people over. You are inviting couples over and you go from door to door, and you are inviting people over and they say to you, I am going to try to attend, or they say, I hope to be there. Well I would like to attend but, I would attend if only, I could attend, I really should attend.
Are these people coming to the dinner party? Answer, no way. But you go to the door of someone. You invite them and they say, I will definitely be there. Guess who is going to be at the dinner party.
Now you remember Yoda, that little puppet from Star Wars who said, “there is no try, only do.”
So what we are going to learn about now are confidence killers and confidence makers. We are going to learn about confidence builders and we are going to learn about the kind of language that you need to use out on the course that is going to make you a winner.
Okay, the first confidence killer is the word hope. I hope I can sink this shot. That is not going to make it. That is not good enough.
I am going to try to sink this shot. Alright, folks here is what I would like you to do. I would like you to try to lift your right hand. Now what happened when you tried? Did you lift your right hand or did you not lift your right hand? You see, if you lifted your right hand then that was not trying, that was lifting. The only way to try something is not to accomplish it. So when you say, I am going to try to sink this putt, it is not going to work; it is not going to go in.
The word “but” negates whatever came before in a sentence. I would really like to sink this putt but the green is too wet. What does that mean? That means I am not going to sink that putt. So, hope, try and but are absolute confidence killers.
I hope my game will improve. Is my game going to improve? No, I am just going to sit around and hope.
I am going to improve my short game. I am going to attempt. I wish. These are wimpy words and these are not going to get you what you need. Results.
And then we have the three “oulds”. Would, could, should. These are all wimpy words. These are all words that are implying you are not going to succeed. And if this is what you say on the outside, it is what is reflected on the inside; a complete lack of confidence.
What we need to do, we need to change your language from the language of wimpiness to the language of confidence. We need to change your language from the language of indecisiveness to the language of certainty. Here are some of the words that you should be using. Absolutely. I am absolutely going to sink this putt. Positively. I am positively going to cut six strokes from my game in the coming week or month. Without a doubt. Without a doubt, I am going to drive this shot further than anything I have hit today. Certainly. Obviously. Definitely. Of course. Undoubtedly. I am guaranteed to improve my game. Sure.
Now, how do you get confident? Confidence comes from doing. Confidence does not come from just sitting around. You need to get out there and put this into practice.
Is your game going to improve? Absolutely. Are you going to be sinking those impossible putts? Without a doubt. Is your game going to improve the very next time you go out on the links? Definitely. What are your chances for cutting six strokes off your score? They are guaranteed.
Confidence comes from doing. You need to use the language of motivation. I have to, I need to, I must, as opposed to the wimpy language of would have, could have, should have.
What language are you using? Are you using the language of certainty? Are you using the language of unstoppable confidence? Are you using the language that indicates that you are going to sink every impossible putt? Of course you are, most certainly.
