THE ‘NEW YEAR' or will it be another version of the ‘OLD YEAR'

A belated Happy New Year to you all with the expectation that this year CAN be different.  Over the coming weeks and months, I will bring to you some of the very latest research from the worlds of neuro-science, NLP, hypnosis and just about anything that may assist in the process of you becoming the best that you can be.

• Ask yourself what it is that you are going to take action on? 
• Are you going to pick up the phone or send an e-mail and enquire about working with someone on a ONE to ONE basis?
• Are you going to buy the book or the cd programme that COULD change the way that you think?

Whatever it is TAKE ACTION!!

Thinking doesn't change behaviour …. BEHAVIOUR changes BEHAVIOUR .

WHY DON'T GOALS SEEM to WORK?

As you sit here reading this article, you are probably at the time of year when you are already looking back at those well-meaning New Year s resolutions and thinking what happened??

It seemed to make so much sense on Jan 1 st that this year WAS going to be the year when you finally stopped smoking, those extra pounds around the waist would be eliminated and you would hit at LEAST 300 balls a week at the driving range.

How long did those resolutions last?

Perhaps if you got to the 6 th of January with the goals intact, console yourself that you were in front of about 90% of the population!

One of the fascinating aspects of the work that I do is to observe people and the fact that almost everybody wants to CHANGE , be that the way they look, what they earn, the person they are with or how well they play golf.

Yet, almost NOBODY manages to change!

Income levels stay the same, weight hangs around our middle and perhaps the most stubborn of all is the golf handicap, which refuses to budge more than the odd digit up or down!!

• Why is this?
• Why do we want change so much yet find it almost impossible to achieve?

The answer lies not unsurprisingly in the BRAIN .

Your brain is what is known as a pattern recognition masterpiece or PRM for short; in plain English what this means is that your brain LOVES to repeat patterns.  You get up in the morning and go into the bathroom and brush your teeth like you always do, you drive to work the same way that you always did, you watch the same stuff on TV, you get into bed with your wife and well…...you get the picture.

Much as the mind gurus promise you to ‘change your life in 7 days' or whatever ridiculous claim they come up with next, your brain will just fight against it.

The brain loves to repeat and repeat and repeat.

Nothing wrong with this of course in terms of brushing your teeth and going to work but absolutely deadly in terms of wanting to improve your golf.

Over and over again in all walks of life, I see people operating TWO destructive patterns.

1. They do something that works for them and then STOP .

2. They keep doing things that DON'T work.

• Is there any real hope?
• Can we change?

The answer of course is a resounding YES but do not fool yourself into thinking that it will be easy or instant.  Just console yourself into understanding that if change were instant and easy and your brain was indeed that stupid, then you would have to sit and think every morning about how to put your socks on!!

Every pattern and habit that you have in your brain is like a road or a motorway each time you do something the brain finds it easier to ‘go down the same road'.

New habits are about laying down new pathways in your brain, then going down the pathways enough times that the brain can then have a new ‘preferred route', the old roads won't disappear but the new ones become the route of choice.  Choice being the key word because every time you exercise your choice to go down a new route, you are laying the foundation for a permanent habit.

The golden rule with all of this is that the quality of your life is going to be determined by the QUALITY of your daily patterns and habits.

Over the next couple of months, I will take you through some proven strategies of change that you can apply to your game but to begin with let s look at EFFECTIVE goal setting.

Most goal setting fails because it is set way off in the future.

If you are a smoker and you set the goal of being a non-smoker for the rest of your life, then that is potentially a LONG WAY off.

Goals like becoming scratch or winning a tournament are fine to have as a DIRECTION but your goals need to be SHORT TERM and I mean VERY short term.

The way I look at it with the players I work with is that success is just a series of ‘good days' mixed in, of course, with some ok days and the inevitable bad day.

However, if your focus is on today, what are you going to do today, then your mind is set in the only place that it can control which is NOW .

Also, your brain needs evidence that you are changing to keep the new pathway in your brain burning strong.

Follow these ‘PRINCIPLES of CHANGE' :

1. Get yourself a book to write in EVERY DAY

2. At the beginning of each day give yourself 3 Completions.  3 things that you are going to do TODAY that will move you towards your goals.

3. At the end of the day tick off the 3 completions and write out the BEST part of the day.

4. Keep repeating for the rest of your life!!

Sounds ridiculously simple doesn't it?!   No bells and whistles, no fancy techniques, no outrageous claims.

The formula is simple; sticking to it is the challenge.

Strong research says thought that if you keep repeating a pattern for between 5 to 15 days, chances are that you will make it permanent.

A little tip on this if you really want to succeed is tell someone who you respect that you are going to do this and, at the end of each day for the next 15 days, you are going to send them a text that will simply say DONE .

When they receive the text saying DONE , they will know that you have completed your tasks for the day, however, if they don't receive the text saying DONE then they and YOU will know that you have stopped doing what you really said you wanted to do.

The risk of ‘losing face' could be your strongest ally in achieving what you want this year. Use it!!

ONE to ONE SESSIONS with Dr Karl Morris

The opportunity to work 1-2-1 is not for everyone in so much that there is a requirement of a significant investment in both time and money.  This option may not be for you, but on the other hand, if you really want to take your game to another level send me an email ( sales@golf-brain.com ) detailing your golfing intentions and I will reply personally.

Visit www.golf-brain.com for further information on products and services by Dr Karl Morris.