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Master Your Game: Establishing Your Tactical Game

Written by: Jacque Small

Article Overview: After establishing your target, it is imperative that you establish a strategy. Here are four factors that have assisted me in executing my strategy: • Taking action • Being focused when in action • Learning from the action and adjusting for the next one • Being persistent.

Master Your Game: Establishing Your Tactical Game

After establishing your target, it is imperative that you establish a strategy. Here are four factors that have assisted me in executing my strategy:

• Taking action
• Being focused when in action
• Learning from the action and adjusting for the next one
• Being persistent.


Take Action

One thing that seems to separate winners from losers
more than anything else is that winners take action.

- Jack Canfield, renowned educator,
author and motivational speaker

We all have different styles. Some spend more time in the planning stage, creating the perfect plan so that the first step is just right. Others are constantly in action. With the latter, the challenge will be to slow down, methodically choose the next set of actions and do them one at a time.

To move toward your target it is necessary to take action. Whatever your working style, nothing happens without action.


Focus

Do you find that between your personal life and work there seems to be a never ending demand on your time? Do people also expect a high quality performance? Do you worry just a little bit about delivering everything that is expected?

We can learn a lot from professional golfers by watching how they deal with all of those eyes watching them, waiting for that perfect swing. Two things you will notice: they have a high level of confidence as well as the ability to block out the world and focus on the task at hand.

The secret is to simply aim at your target, decide on the first action then focus exclusively on taking this action until it is complete. When you have completed the action, you can look around, assess the situation and get ready to take the next step with complete focus. Zoom in and zoom out, just like a camera. Zoom in the focus to take the action then zoom out to assess priorities and decide on the next action.


Learn and Adjust

Do you worry about not doing things right? You are not alone. We were all born with egos and most of us developed a fear of 'being wrong' and looking stupid. In my first year of golf lessons I bet I said sorry 100 times. Every time I did not hit the ball the way my coach asked I said sorry. Then I thought: What did I have to be sorry about? I was learning!

When you are out there taking action, stop for a moment and pay attention to the feedback you are receiving. Make sure you say "Thank you" because they have contributed to your learning. Use this learning to adjust your next action. As you learn you are able to zigzag your way towards your target. By using the feedback you can decrease the size of the zigzag and move toward the target faster.

Not receiving any feedback? Ask for it. Try:

• What did I do really well?
• What would you like me to keep doing?
• What would you like me to do differently?


Every time I talk to my coach about my game I get feedback and a chance to learn. I use the information he gives me to adjust my swing or to determine the focus of my practice.


Persistence

As you move toward your target you may think "it is never going to work," "I don?t know how to do this" and "why did I pick this target." Quitting somehow seems so much easier.

When Terry Fox was asked how he keeps going as exhaustion set in with thousands of miles yet to go, he answered, "I just keep running to the next telephone pole."

On my journey to achieve a golf index of 12 (score of 89), I spent three years hovering between 18 and 20. I had a couple of brilliant games each year, but mostly I would shoot around a hundred dipping down into the 90s on occasion. It would have been easy to quit those weekly golf lessons. Or, for that matter, quit playing golf altogether and take up some other sport. After all I seemed to have reached my natural level.

But I did not quit; I persisted. I kept taking the lessons and practicing my swing to make it better and better. Like Terry, I tried until I reached the next telephone pole and the next.

Taking action, focusing, learning and persisting pays off. I know. However, when I learned the secrets of the mental game, that's when my game really soared. More about that in the next issue.

Hone your swing,
Jacque Small

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Article Tags: focus, goal, persistance, tactical game



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