The golf season ends for most of us in Central Oregon sometime between October and November and won't start back up again until the snow melts and we need to mow our lawns again. There are many things that you can do in the "offseason" as aspiring young golfers or seasoned golf veterans to help achieve your goals in the upcoming season. The offseason provides an opportunity to reset, reframe goals, and create habits that will lead to positive growth.
Reset. Evaluate. Contemplate. Repair. Prepare.
These words elicit clear action for growth and learning. Can you be objective about where you stand at the moment? Take some time to acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses, as well as areas of your game that showed the most growth throughout the year. What were you doing and thinking about when you played your best golf? How about your not-so-best golf? Is your body in the best place it can be? Can you hit the factory reset button and enter this season with a beginner's mind? Jack Nicklaus did this every year...
Dream. Visualize. Commit.
Accountability will keep you on track as you set your golf goals for the coming season. What is it that you want to achieve this year? Did you achieve what you set out to do last year? What kept you from your goals last year? Even if your goal is a big, hairy, audacious one, you should challenge yourself to figure out ways to make the goal attainable. What can you do every day that will hold you accountable? It has been said many times in many different ways, "the journey is the destination."
Offseason Golf Habit Creation
One of the best things we can do in the offseason is the wonderful act of habit creation. If you can do something small every day that in some way contributes to the journey required to achieve your goal, you will be much more likely to create meaningful habits. Eat one vegetable every day. Run for 10 minutes every day. Wake up 15 minutes earlier and sit in reflection for 5 of them. Whatever makes you a fuller person, find joy in the journey!
A fun game involved in the Personal Par Project that junior golfers may want to try is to write down five simple habits that contribute to finding success. Every time you do one, smile and write down (-1) on the piece of paper because you just made a birdie! If you play golf that day, you can start your round at 5 under par, just by checking off your habit list!
Enjoy the journey because it often is the destination even if the season hasn't even started!