Pick a Flavor…

Take a moment and visualize a large Jar of jelly beans.  The jar is clear, so you can see all the different colors and possible flavors of the jelly beans inside.  Now imagine that this jar is abundant, meaning, regardless of what jelly bean is pulled out, the jar will instantly replenish itself.  Reach in the jar, take out a jelly bean and eat it.  Do you like it?  Was the color representative of the flavor that you tasted?  Mentally, do this until you have tried all the different jelly beans in the jar.  Some of these jelly beans you will absolutely love, while others you won’t really care for. (I can’t stand licorice!)  Enjoy the ability to pick and choose the color and flavor of the jelly beans you like.

Let’s take that same jar of jelly beans. Only now, the jar is no longer clear.  You are unable to differentiate between the jelly beans. They all look the same.  Again, grab one and eat it.  Did you like it?  How does the inability to choose your favorites feel to you?  The results of your selections are now left to chance.

A round of golf can be very similar to a jar of jelly beans.  The jelly beans, in this case, representing the shots you hit on the golf course.  And, as before, the jar can be either clear or dark.  Visualization is the key to to determining how clear the jar can be.  The better we visualize the desired results, the more clear the jar becomes.  A beginning golfer must experiment with many different shots before they can pick the shots they truly desire, however, visualization is critical at this period to see and feel all results, good or bad.    

Most beginning players, golf with a jar that is very dark, hitting random shots, unable to select the ones they really like.  Simply accepting the results of their selection without thinking for a moment that they have any control over them.  These players will usually say things like “how did I do that?”, when they hit a good shot, or, “why do I always hit that shot?”, when they hit a bad one.  

Intermediate players, see through a clear jar, yet, still do not choose to select the the shots that they would be most satisfied with.  They are surface level players, playing the first shot available to them in the jar that looks acceptable.  These players do hit far more quality shots, but tend to get lazy and occasionally pull shots “out of the jar” they would rather throw back. 

Advanced players, see through a clear jar and pick the shots out of it that they really want.  they “dig deep” through the surface level of mediocre shots, if need be, to find the shots that they love to see and feel. 

Take a good look at your golf game.  Is your jar clear or dark?  Is it abundant with the shots you want to hit, or do you limit the amount of good ones you can “pull out of the jar?”  Do you sift through the shots available to you, or simply grab for the first one you see?  The more you visualize picking out the perfect shot, the more you will “taste” the rewards of positive outcomes.  Visualize your jar, clear and abundant, and you will see and feel a better golf game.

Thanks for golfing with Jeff

This entry was posted on November 26, 2006 at 8:13 am and is filed under Game Improvement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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