If you’ve watched much golf – or any golf for that matter – no doubt you’ve seen golfers who suffer from something the great tennis player (and even better human being) Arthur Ashe referred to as “paralysis by analysis.” I remember one time thinking I could have baked a pie in the time it took Jim Furyk to hit a shot. He stood over the tiny little ball for what seemed like forever.
Finally, I just bellowed at the tv, “Hit the darn thing! It’s not going to hit back, I promise!”
He spent too much time thinking and, sure enough, the golf shot was lousy.
Sergio is another golfer who often seems lost in time as well as in his own thoughts.
“Doing nothing gets you nothing.” – Sean Reichl
Truth be told, you don’t have to be a golfer to battle with over-thinking. It gets us all at one time or another. We gather data, facts, figures, and quotes. Heck, some of us (guilty, guilty, guilty) even print our information out, give it the hole-punch treatment, and house it in an appropriately colored binder. We fill our brains with information but we neglect to carry it out. It’s great to have facts, don’t get me wrong – but if that’s all we’ve got then… Well, then that’s all we’ve got.
To be fair, sometimes it takes a great leap of faith and a significant amount of guts to carry out an action. It’s so much safer to sit back and think about the action.
And think about it, and think about it… And, and, think about it….
The only problem is we end up standing around, doing little more than just getting in our own way. Our intentions are out of this world – but we just can’t seem to get everything out of our brains and into our hands.
People will gather and read everything they can get their hands on about eating healthy, then go out and order the biggest burger their lips will fit around as a prize for all the research.
If you aren’t going to change your game why even bother reading the rule book?
Is there anything in your life that you’ve been “studying on” without “acting on?” Decide, today, to stop standing over the ball – hit it a country mile. It may, or may not, go exactly where you expected it to go – but at least it went. You can always stomp through the rough and hit it again. If it goes in the water, you can roll up your pants and wade out to meet it. You wouldn’t be the first. You wouldn’t be the last.
Oh the stories I could tell you about my miniature golf experiences…
The point is, at some point we have to stop planning to act and just act!
“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” – Bruce Lee
Think of at least one thing that you’ve been rolling over in your mind. Maybe you’ve been planning out the great walking regime you want to start, or maybe you’ve been planning to launch an e-bay business. Take ACTION right now. DO SOMETHING that will put these plans and thoughts in motion
The most important thing you can do is this: Take your first step. It’s the toughest, so just go ahead and get it out of the way.
Once you’ve put yourself in motion, keep on keeping on.
I’ll be here cheering you on!
~ Joi