Golf is best viewed as an endurance sport played at a snail’s pace. Because of this, it is easy to fall into one of two chasms; the first being loss of all concentration, and the second being paralysis by analysis. Such are the pitfalls of extreme amounts of control vs extreme amounts of not giving a shit. What we must do to achieve serenity and peace of mind on the course is accepting our level.

This one can be a little tricky sometimes, just because of the nature of the mind, but when you’ve raised your psychological capital to the point where you are completely in control of your body, and then you’ve reached a great place.

Let me rephrase that: You’re in a good place when you have reached peace of mind and can strategically control the balance, coil, tempo and groove of your swing… but at the same time be very relaxed about it and not neurotic at all. Because nobody enjoys being around neurotic people…

The nature of accepting our level is slightly counterintuitive though. Instead of striving to exert extreme amounts of control and improvement – or on the other end, extreme amounts of not giving a shit – you need to find that ‘sweet spot’ somewhere right in the middle.

Hitting the sweet spot is nice. You won’t worry about everything. You won’t compulsively search out all the newest golf wisdom. You won’t be stressed if the ball leaks out right instead of left.

You’ll basically be content with the level of progress you’ve learned to consistently achieve.

Sergio Garcia said it best:

“I’m not good enough … I don’t have the thing I need to have, In 13 years I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to play for second or third place.”

Ironically, by accepting his game as it was, he was able to finally break through to greatness. Think about that.