Being Grateful, Being Thankful

This week is Thanksgiving here in the US. It is a time when we celebrate the things we are thankful for in our lives. Families gather around tables across the country to eat turkey and watch football.

Every newsletter I write ends with the following: Be grateful when you play. Be thankful you have the privilege and opportunity to play this amazing game.

I want to write about why I end my newsletter this way.

Golf is a special game. It requires athleticism, yet many elite athletes struggle with the game. Being an athlete does not guarantee success.

Golf has different components which rely on different sets of skills. Putting is different than hitting a driver. Pitch shots are different than long irons. Young and old people alike enjoy playing the game and can play it well.

No golfer masters every aspect of the game. Even the best players in world have weak parts of their game.

Golf courses are in of themselves unique from one another, but share similar characteristics such as bunkers, water hazards, trees, etc. While sharing these similarities, every course remains its own creation.

One day you can feel great on the course and everything clicks. The next day nothing feels right and everything falls apart. The opposite can also be true. You can feel great and play poorly, or you can feel poorly and play great.

You can lose your swing in the middle of a round. Your swing can disappear for stretches of holes or rounds only to miraculously return.

You can play the same course every day and have different conditions which change the dynamics of the course. The wind blows harder or from a different direction. It’s warmer or colder out. The ground is hard causing the ball to run more. The ground is soft causing the ball to hit and stop..

It can all be so maddening and frustrating if you let it. And when you do let it get maddening and frustrating, the game ceases to be fun.

But it is the very things I mentioned above which makes the game fun because they bring the challenge the game presents. Every round, every shot contains something new to experience.

It’s a choice golfers have. To let the game frustrate them and make them angry, or to enjoy the challenges and experiences the game offers.

Being grateful when you get to play changes your mindset. You view the round in a completely different way. You are at the course playing the game you love. Be grateful for it. Enjoy being outside. Be grateful you have the physical capability to play the game.

Being thankful you have the privilege and opportunity to play also changes the mindset. It is a privilege to play golf. It can be expensive. Golf used to be viewed as a sport for the wealthy, and it still is to some degree. Today, there are opportunities across all financial and social spectrums to play. Having the opportunity to set foot on a golf course and enjoy the game with friends or family or even playing by yourself is a privilege. When you treat it as such, the game is more fun.

I haven’t always approached the game in this manner. I took it way too seriously. Anger became a companion when I played poorly. When I played well, I never savored the experience. There was always something which could have gone better, some lost opportunity to play better. As a result, I never enjoyed any round or shot the way I should have enjoyed them. There was always more work to be done, something to fix in the chase for golf perfection which is impossible to achieve.

Sure, I get angry sometimes over a poor shot or frustrated when I don’t play well, and I still work on improving in order to get better. But, when I focus on being grateful and thankful, those things don’t overtake my enjoyment of the game.

So, these words I use to end my newsletter have meaning. Think about them. Remember them the next time you play. Remember them the next time you get angry over a bad round or a bad shot. Remember them when frustration begins to overtake your love of the game.

To learn what events in my life formed this philosophy, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Paid subscribers receive additional content with every newsletter.

As always, be grateful when you get to play. Be thankful for the privilege and opportunity to play this amazing game. Now, go golf!

And have a Happy Thanksgiving!

There will not be a newsletter next week as I am travelling for Thanksgiving.