Don't fix your problems

Don’t fix your problems

By Dennis M Clark

Golfers are forever trying to fix something in their swing in order to eliminate bad golf shots.
Now that sounds quite reasonable, for the elimination of the bad shot would move us into a vastly different realm of golf.
But this in itself creates a greater problem, for here we have two conflicting points, the problem and the fix. While we are acknowledging we have a problem we need to fix, we are still holding on to it and it’s never going to go away. So we’ve actually defeated the exercise before we’ve even started.
We add to this the fix, which is a totally different concept and the conflict has now escalated.
We now add the petrol to the fire by adding the TRYING. What we are doing here is trying to impose one concept onto another which is diametrically opposed, and expecting the correct answer to somehow appear.
Trying itself suggests there is a battle afoot, for Trying usually consists of a half hearted effort with no real expectation of success rather than full commitment.
When this battle is lost, which it invariably is, we set up a new one as we TRY to impose another fix on the problem, and so it goes on. Unfortunately there is usually a little residue from every fix added to the initial problem, maybe not physically, but definitely mentally, and so the next fix becomes even a greater battle.
It’s like we have a sheet of paper and the problem is written on it, and every time we try a fix we add more writing. Then when that fix doesn’t work we cross that out and add more writing, and again and again and again until the piece of paper is full of scribbled words and crossing outs. Then we turn it over and keep it going. This is what is going on in the mind as we try to fix our golfing problems. The clutter becomes more and more, and with this ever increasing clutter we move further away from resolving our initial problem. In fact we keep adding to it, making it more confusing.
What we really need is a clean sheet of paper of paper to which we add the few words that are truly needed and which are legible and thus operable.
Why would you want to spend your whole golfing life trying to fix something when by dropping that cluttered piece of paper and picking up a new blank piece the problem no longer exists?
The fact of the matter is, you cannot fix anything in the golf swing. What actually happens is, you do something different. Now if you carry any of the old problem with you when you do that something different, it is contaminated with the old problem and you won’t see the real value of it.
A common sense approach would tell us that if your old swing is continually failing to give you what you want, why would you want to hold on to it anyway? It will only continue to cause problems.
If you had a car, that no matter how much you fixed it, it wouldn’t function properly, you could either keep pouring money into a big hole or get a knew car.
Don’t fix, dump it and do something constructive.

Copyright Dennis M Clark 2009