If there was one thing that you could do at the beginning of your golf game, that would make a huge difference on your golf score? What would that be? Something meaner then Big Bertha, you bought from e-bay? Telescopic broomstick, that was supposed to do everything, including range finder, amount of force and read the breaks that the naked eye were not able to pick up?

Actually it is none of the above. It is the ability to be in the HERE AND NOW. Let me explain. The great shot is already done and it went smack down the middle of the fairway. The slice that took your golf ball into the next fairway and the fore that followed is in the past. What matters now is how you react to these shots. Do you add fuel to the fire and make it burn BIGGER then it is, because that is what youre doing when you start carrying on about how that shot was played. The proverb DONT CRY OVER SPILT MILK is very applicable here the shot is done. Easier said then done.

So how do I get to the HERE AND NOW

Grab blocks of 4-8 minutes and just sit quietly and look at the golf ball. The object of this exercise is to quiet your mind. Look at the ball and when you mind starts to wonder to other things, exhale and refocus on the ball. Do no more then the 8 minutes. When you start to get good at refocusing and letting go of things that are really not important at this moment in time, your score will come down without you really doing anything extra to your golf game. Gone will be the times when you rushed through your shot and not go through you pre shot routine completely, just to get on to the green, because all the rest of the guys are there waiting for you.

You will know your getting better, when your recovery time gets smaller and shorter. So youre not putting a lot of fuel on to that fire. You will not be able to get rid of this completely, just be happy that by the end of the 4 step (from where you took the shot) away from the slice into the next fairway, you have forgotten about it.

Another way of working through this is using NLP technique ARIA & ALIA. A is for acknowledge the error, R is for releasing the error (for this I lick my middle finger and flick it away from me, as in externalizing the error and letting it go, I is for imprinting a visual image of the correct action required and A is for asking your self to do that the next time and you actual have time from the wayward shot, because it does not take that long to go through the whole sequence.

The ALIA is done when you, pull off one of those shots, that you never knew that you had. A is for acknowledge the great shot, L is for love yourself or pat yourself on the back for doing a great shot. I is for imprinting that shot and replaying that great shot and the A is asking youre self to do it again the next time. If you can get your hands on Jeffery Hodges Sportsmind Book (p 33-35)

Another way of learning to let go is EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). The web site below will be a good resource for getting more info on this topic http://www.idealsoulutions.com

What I am doing for you here is generating options for you. We are unique in the way we process information. So what works for the top pro golfers may not be the one for you. Put all of the above to the test for you, if it works use it, if it doesnt, let it go.