I love golf. It’s a love/hate relationship, for sure, but overall, I love it. By no means am I any good at all, but even after the worst rounds I end up having the strange desire to play again. I’ve learned a lot of lessons while hitting a little white ball around a field, but one of the biggest has to be about the importance of optimism.
Stepping up to the ball, especially after a bad shot, takes a lot of optimism. Optimism means believing that good things will happen. Sometimes, especially in golf, it’s hard to maintain the belief that good things will happen. However, you’re never going to hit the ball well if you believe that there is no way it’s going to go where you want it to. To even have a chance at hitting a good shot, you must believe that it will be good.
It’s so easy in golf to be pessimistic when you’re having a bad round. And it’s so easy in life, as well, to be pessimistic when things aren’t going your way. But, you’ll never “hit a good shot” if you aren’t optimistic.
Because of golf, I’m an eternal and sometimes idiotic optimist. I have to be. I have to believe that the past doesn’t dictate the future. I have to believe that the future will be bright. Sometimes it’s hard, and at those times it’s all the more imperative to be optimistic.
Life isn’t always going to go your way. There will be disappointments, failures, and shots out of bounds but that doesn’t mean that it’s always going to be that way. What you think becomes what is, so think good things. Be optimistic and one day, you’ll hit the perfect shot.