Tiger Woods & The Game of Life!

by Judith Tramayne-Barth

Published on this site: April 18th, 2005 - See more articles from this month...

Watching Tiger Woods when he plays in a tournament is awe inspiring. He seems to make every stroke look simple. Now I don't play golf and probably never will but I do like to watch the game.

Why?

Because it reminds me of the game of life. So I study it to see what I can learn from the players. And, what I've learned from watching Tiger is focus. When the camera is on him, look at his eyes. They don't waiver from his end result.

Even when he has an "impossible" shot - he takes his time, looks at it from all angles, decides on a solution, takes a few practice swings, steps up to the ball, looks out to where he "expects" the ball to land then hits the ball.

More often than not, the ball will land exactly where he wants and the "announcers" will say either - "it's a miracle, lucky or only from Tiger could that happen."

And I chuckle because they just don't get it.

It isn't a miracle, or lucky and the other golfers could do the same thing if they were as focused.

The next thing I noticed when Tiger is in his "zone" (winning mode) is his ability to be in the moment. There is no past, there is no future - just the moment of pure focus so the ball lands where he envisioned. These are the tournaments he always wins even if he is 9 strokes under going into the last day.

Now how does this affect your and my life? We aren't going to be pro golfers but we do have our own "dream" of how we want to live. And, if we follow Tiger's example and our focus never waivers on our end result, then the likelihood of winning what we desire is increased.

True, we might experience some challenges but if we look at all the options, decide on a course of action, take a few practice swings (sometimes people consider these failures), step up and do what's needed, then put it in action - with our focus on the end result - we strengthen our chances to win in this Game called "life."

Judith Tramayne-Barth's site is http://www.agoodread.com which has free books, articles and link pages you'll love. She also writes excellent "how-to" books for her Art & Book Club patrons.