Dawn Grant Reveals the Purpose of My Writing/Journal

Written on 5-19-24.

      I see in my notes that I wanted to write about the excerpts from Dawn Grant’s book, because what she wrote had everything to do with one of the purposes of this journal.  I took pictures of two pages to help me recount what she said, and then I gave the book back to John.

Here is part of what she wrote, “What does having fun again mean?  For the competitive person, having fun again can mean I can still set goals for myself and I can still have drive, but I’m also aware that I like being on the golf course.  I like these people with whom I’m playing.  I like being a golfer!”

She continues, “I have overcome fear and I can appreciate the ‘good’ in all, even in ‘bad’ shots and ‘bad’ scores, because I now see the gold nuggets and the golden opportunities to learn and advance forward…just like I want!”   

She also wrote, “…allow for...

the reality, golf is not a game of perfection.  Not even for the #1 golfer in the world!”

It’s like she put her voice into the purpose of this journal when I started it way back in September of 1999.  I wrote something like, “I look forward to getting more serious about having fun,” which has a similar meaning, but I didn’t really expand on what I meant by that.  She gave voice to the details, and what she wrote explains it in a better way.

Here is the rest of what she said, “You can be certain that the golfers who are kicking their bags or stomping off in a huff to the next hole aren’t the ones performing well…and they certainly aren’t having fun.”

She continues, “What’s the worst that can happen if you let go of old, negative habits and destructive mental chatter; and instead practice techniques of accessing the Zone, for calming your body and your mind, for experiencing confidence with humility, for having clarity and focus, for having trust and faith, for being present and having fun?  There is no downside.”

That is really good stuff.

I really like the part about having ‘confidence with humility.’  That’s a golden nugget all by itself.  I feel like that is my temperament, and I do my best to have that as my temperament to most of the time.

I also like the part about golf not being a game of perfect, and that echoes what the good Dr. Rotella says.  That is the actual title of one of his books: Golf is Not a Game of Perfect, and I have always been a fan of his.

The hard part is to practice these things, and she has given me ways to practice, so I really have no excuses.  I need to practice the mental aspects as much as I practice physically.

Until next time…