Running your golf brain effectively is not about completely forgetting
your bad play – it’s about handling it effectively so you can learn from your
mistakes. Remember that playing your best golf is a process and as such it has
its ups and downs: when you’re playing good you think you’ll never play badly
again and when you’re playing badly you are sure you never play good again –
and neither one is true!
Thus while you should give yourself permission to acknowledge bad golf
memories you should also make sure that the bad is entered into your memory as
a fact rather than a failure.
Research shows that the brain has two storage bins or as Daniel Goleman says
“the brain has two memory systems, one for ordinary facts (System I) and one
for emotionally-charged experiences (System II).” Thus the rule is what you emotionalize you
immortalize. And while a strength/weakness profile is fluid and ever changing,
a fully emotionalized failure is an event that is with you forever. The message
is clear: be careful what you make immortal!
The Storage Bins
What control do you have over the storage of your golf events? It’s all
in the label. There are three markers that in combination determine whether an
event is a System 1 or System 2: [1] the intensity of the experience [2] the
duration -- how long it lasts [3] the number of times you repeat it.
Some events even though they occur only once are System 2’s because of their
intensity: The Kennedys assassination and 9/11 are two and if you are a golfer
it’s hard to forget Tiger Woods winning his first Masters or Jack Nicklaus's
last major victory in the 1986 Masters.
These neural footprints are made indelible and instantly available for
recall because of the heavyweight emotions you have attached to them.
How to Use the Marker
Use the three markers to flag every good shot: make it intense by
getting excited; make it last by replaying it mentally after the shot is completed
– run the good-shot tape again as you travel between shots; and rep it by
replaying it again and again after the
round. Do the opposite to mark the bad
shot as a fact.
