Daily Inspiration: Golf & Success – “Don’t let the bad moments define your good ones!”

“Don’t let the bad moments define your good ones!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

It was a wildly successful failure!

Sure, I’m probably dead last in the Seniors Golf Tournament in which I participated this weekend, but I bear no shame.

And, because I was willing to put myself out there, I am beaming with pride. That’s because learned A LOT, had quite a bit of fun (at most moments in time), and above all, made sure I was a responsible mature adult during my bad shot moments – of which there were only a few. Not only that, but in doing so, I learned about the innovation mindset and one of the most critical things about it – don’t let your bad moments define your potential good ones!

Some years ago, I had the good fortune to golf with a fellow named Ian Doig. Based in Ontario, he’s a PGA Pro who played professional golf for many years, with his website noting this fact:

The thrill of competition and the pride of winning is what has always driven Ian to become a world-class golfer. He’s competed in over 400 professional tournaments around the globe in his 4+ decades as a touring professional. Events include several PGA Tour events and the 2018 U.S. Senior Open Championship. Ian has won over 25 professional tournaments.

On a small side note, he worked on the grounds crew of my home club, Cutten Fields, very early in his career. Maybe I can get him back for another round!

Since that round with Ian well over a decade ago, I’ve been following him on Facebook, and have been fascinated and mesmerized by his continual chase of success. His posts are a magical bit of insight into the golfer’s mind – and since I spend a lot of time studying the link between innovation and golf, his posts are fertile ground for my inquisitive self.

I love the fact that despite so many years chasing his game, and a few bad moments, he will still note that he thinks he has finally figured it out!

Even so, he’s willing to post about his bad moments in addition to his good ones:

And every once in a while, as he chases his game, he also finds the success that can so often prove to be elusive.

In my innovation-focused mind, watching Ian from afar has taught me a lot about the process of how success can be an elusive goal, always in the mix, always difficult to achieve – and yet, can result in the ultimate reality of a win.

To me, that is what innovation is all about. We all know the idea that innovation success comes from repeated multiple failures – it’s only by failing that success can be found. When we see SpaceX launch a rocket and it blows up, we might consider it to be a failure. Rocket engineers know differently, aware that rocketry is very difficult, and that the ultimate result of a successful launch is built on a platform of repeated multiple failures.

Ian is willing to blow up rockets to discover how to launch the good ones.

To that end, this weekend – my goal in competing in the Seniors Club Championship was to be able to discover the mindset behind that type of thinking. I wanted to understand the reality of tournament golf – what happens in a real competitive game? What mindset is at work? What is it that competitive golfers do that allows them to chase success – or perhaps, fail altogether? How do they recover from their bad moments and simply walk to the next hole and get their game back? How do they not let the demon of failure attack their inner angel of potential success?

I might have failed on the weekend with my overall score, but wow, did I ever exceed my expectations with what I learned! Going into the weekend, I was reflecting on the comments of one of my good golf friends that ‘tournament golf is very different from regular golf.’ This much is true – my hands were shaking as I stood over my first putt on the first hole. I three-putted that one – and on the very first day, had 43 putts overall. (Hint for non-golfers – that’s pretty bad.) I four-putted the next hole (Hint: that’s even worse!)

But once I got going, I learned that I could put myself in a terrible position and recover from it. I learned that I could have an awful moment that might have caused me to react in disgust with myself – and yet move on from that and chase the next great moment. I learned that the idea of eventual success comes from battling the demon of failure that can chase you during your worst moments. I learned that I could achieve a form of mental toughness that I never knew I might have.

I learned how to launch rockets.

I’ve never competed in any type of competitive sports event in my life. To that end, each day, I had two ‘blow-up holes.’ Two holes involving avoidable mistakes that led to a bad result, that overall,  led to my inability to chase a better overall total round score. And yet, it was right after those mistakes that I was able to refocus, rethink why I was there, and return to form. Bottom line? I learned that I should not judge my success by what I ultimately accomplished, but from what I learned along the way.

Because I learned what it takes to launch rockets!

For the rest of the week, my name will be up on the ‘big board’ at my home golf club, with my score posted for all to see. Some might look at the numbers and see it as a bit of a failure.

Me?

I’ll look at it with a lot of pride!

Fore!