Golfing with Tom Hitchcock and Brian Vaughan at the Stanwych Club in Greenwich. I'm a novice golfer, having taken the beginner lessons, watched the video and practiced--but just not getting it. I got lucky from time to time and hit par on a hole, but for the overall game my score was miserable. I kept hitting the ball where, or the distance (usually short), I didn't want it to go. Coming up to a water trap, I tried some "reverse" psychology and said "I'm going to hit it into the drink," believing that I'd swing a contrarian swing. I hit it in the drink. The psyche-out was out. But even if I had focused on "don't hit it into the drink." I would have missed. Why? Because we don't hear the "not." What I needed was to visualize the perfect swing, the perfect distance and compass. To focus on the negative was a recipe for another negative: namely, failure.
A variation on you get what you measure: you get what you imagine! |