Sounds like a good way to visualize progress. You happen to have 10,000 marbles on you

Thank you for the post,

Dan

Get a large bag of marbles and a nice looking glass jar (a fishbowl or water pitcher will work).

For a dwindling resource, fill the far with as many marbles as you have resources. When you’ve used up a resource unit REMOVE a marble and throw it away.

For growing resources you’ll need to count out the number of marbles that equal the target total of the resource you wish to acquire. Count them out and put them in supply bag. Then when you’ve accomplished or collected a resource unit take a marble from the bag and ADD a marble to the jar.

If you live to be 100, you have 5200 Saturdays to enjoy. Remove a marble for each Saturday and watch them dwindle.

Or, watch as you grow your jar full of 10,000 marbles, one for every hour you spend mastering your skill.

This “jar of marbles” technique represents a visual incentive for sticking to the job at hand (golf master) or to avoid squandering a limited resource (time). It is a helpful reminder that big goals or vast resources are only affected by incremental changes.

Expectations are a bitch. The best rounds are the easiest rounds and you never know when they will happen. Drop the expectations. Pick a score you never want to shoot (that you can break at least 80% of the time). Make it your goal to never shoot that score again.

I chose 90 as my score as a 6 handicap a few years ago. Sounds dumb, but when I am +12 through 11 holes, it is game on, not game over. I rarely play golf now (maybe three or four times a month), but I find I have less blow-up rounds now then when I was a 2 handicap in high school and let a three-putt become an out of bounds or a string of doubles and would let my 78s balloon to 90s.

What is important is not impressing yourself every day, but staying on the path to greatness.

-Tom

I’ve been checking in on your page occasionally over the last year and your journey is extremely inspiring! I remember one of the first videos of you in the rain and now look where you are!

I would say try to practice how you wish to play. Practising stressed may lead to playing with stress. If there is no love in your heart when you hit that first stroke in the morning I think it better to take the day and reflect. I am finding that only when the nagging/commenting voice in my head subsides can I truly perform. I think in the East they call this “No mind”.

Anyway feel free to disagree as this is just my opinion! I am on the same journey and your day of agony is one I have felt on many occasions!

I wish you the best of luck! I’ll be watching!

Many thanks

Eugenio

There’s a bunch of us out here rooting for you. I suspect most of us are also very happy to hear form time to time about moods, tantrums or misfortunes. That’s all part of the deal.

Nick’s comment is spot on. Whilst I certainly wouldn’t suggest you take a long break after one bad day, you are going to have to take a proper break at some point. Actually try to completely forget about golf for a while. It might be a good time to consider how you’d like to do this and when might be a good time. I know you’ve had a few days here and there, and the odd road trip, but I wonder how many days you’ve had when you’ve simply not thought about (perhaps not had time to think about) your golf game. Sometimes it’s the break that makes the work really count.

Once the 10,000hrs become like going to the office, maybe you should stop counting them. After all it’s about the hours of focussed practice and not simply about turning up every day.

Keep at it, and good luck!

I hear every word your saying up there. As far as playing goes We are behind you as far as weather goes and tonight we just had our first “Men’s Night” at our country club in Winnipeg. It was cold, 40km winds and wet – needless to say that did not help matters much – tonight was a wreck!!! It was also my first time playing with any type of pressure on me since last fall. So not off to a good start for our short season and with my goals, like yours – it feels like a set back.

I did how ever manage to get to a 12 handi cap at the beginning of April with a early spring thaw but I soon, feeling the pressure of this summers tournaments coming up, managed to some how strain my left hip during practice, taking me out for almost three weeks of full swings. Its funny, I worked all winter and now it seems I have to train my body to do it again but this time, being heeled, to do it with out fear – which proves to be a battle. My lower body is staying stuck afraid to rotate cause it does not want to be hurt again.

Tell me why Dan were doing this again?????

ON a positive note, my swing is back to about 80% since the injury, maybe 90 depending on where my head is at. I will forward you links of how its looking as soon as I get them from my coach. HE says to me the other day while working on driver shots that my swing is pro, 5 years ahead of where my mental game is at which is where the issue these days is coming into play. This is going to be a fun summer for sure!!!

Chat soon Dan

Collin

Winnipeg Canada