I am an intense person, by nature.  The moment immediately after I roll out of bed, shower, and have my first sip of coffee in the morning, I’m like a bullet shot out of a gun.  It doesn’t matter whether it is a workday or a weekend, there is always something that I have to accomplish.  Weekends for me can be more draining than the work week: cleaning, cooking, canning, gardening, drinking, crafting, organizing… anything I do, I do it well and to excess.

So, when a few of my girlfriends talked me into a weekly women’s golf clinic, I was reluctant to say the least.  I mean, have you ever tried watching golf on t.v.?!  Boring.  My kind of sport involves pounding concrete while listening to Skrillex, swinging a bat at balls being lobbed at me in a batting cage, and high intensity cardio workouts.

But……

Two classes in, and I actually…. love it.  I have had marked improvement since I have begun (read: actually hitting the ball instead of air), and have taken back a couple of life lessons to boot.

Not everything in life takes the same approach.  As far as golfing goes, I was not going to hit the ball if I took the same stance as I did winding up to whack a softball.  Just like life, each circumstance is not going to have the right outcome if you approach it the same way.  Every situation takes a little evaluation, deciding the approach, getting a good grip, squaring your shoulders, then handling it.

Use the proper instrument/tool.  This is obvious in the golf world, even for a novice like myself: the different drivers and irons produce different outcomes.  In life, however, this is not as easily perceived.  For example, I know that I can clean my house top to bottom.  But, throw in a full-time career, a part-time military career, a family who needs to eat, two kids in the house with two different sports schedules, laundry, a beekeeping hobby, a family pet to take care of… the list could go on and on.  We ended up hiring a trusted friend to come in once every two weeks to deep clean the house.  I look at the money spent as an excellent instrument as a means to the end.

Slowing down my backswing.  This one was big for me.  On the driving range, I was attempting to whack the ball… and missing almost every time (or, spinning it off towards my co-golfers and instructors if I did make contact).  One of our instructors kept insisting that I ‘slow down my backswing’.  While I thought I was creeping at turtle speed, he kept urging to “slow it down”.  After quite a few practice swings, and an almost delayed hesitation midair, I did it.  People, this is big for me.  I can’t even walk slow.  But his advice resonated with me on a life-scale as well.  I am always so concerned with accomplishment that I have forgotten about taking the time to slow down and concentrate on not only the task at hand, but myself.  I rush through life doing, doing, doing, and am completely missing the big picture of it all.  While I can’t say that I have completely slowed down, I have made an honest approach at decelerating and decompressing at night and on the weekends.  Yesterday, I took a day of leave from work to spend the afternoon with my daughter at the Botanical Gardens, walking hand in hand, enjoying the outdoors and beautiful scenery.  Tonight, I plan on doing… nothing.  No projects, no nothing.  Maybe we will watch a movie, maybe not.  And I am okay with that.

Two women’s golf clinics in and I am philosophizing life… I can’t wait to see what the next classes bring!