Self-Mastery - The Masters

Designing a passionate life includes self-mastery. I just finished watching "The Masters' golf tournament. I'm not a big golf fan but my husband is and when he watches I often get caught up in the game. As I watched the tournament today a number of thoughts occurred to me.

• Each of the men playing is passionate about the game of golf. They eat, drink, dream, and live for golf. They are following their passions and having a great time doing it.
• Each of them has similar skill sets. However, at their level of play, it all comes down to the mental game of self-mastery.
• Each of them must be absolutely present in each moment that they are planning their next shot, when they swing the club. Any mental wandering and the shot could be doomed. They are aware of what the other players are doing but if they let themselves get caught up in what the other person is doing they could loose focus and miss a shot.

What I noticed about Tiger Woods is that he didn't play at the top of his game but he did stay focused. What he does better than many others, that we can learn from, is to stay focused when things don't go the way you want them to and to keep moving forward with mental self-mastery.

Kenny Perry was on track to win and be one of the oldest players to win the masters. In his college days he injured his neck. This set back did not stop him. In order to keep playing golf he had to create a swing unique to his body and it works.

The winner of the tournament Angel Cabrera played sporadic throughout the day but he stayed focused and kept moving forward. Letting go of each thing that went wrong and he had a number of them. He was in the woods and hit the ball off of a tree and everyone thought he was done. He wasn't.

The commentators talked about the fact that they must stay focused, visualize, and be present in each moment on the course. This is no different for you when you are designing a passionate life. It all comes down to your own mental self-mastery. Where do you place your focus when things don't go the way you planned? How present are you in each moment as you move forward?

Sign up for my free passionate deficit disorder (PDD) report and find out what you can do to start living a passionate life.