Focused on the Fundamentals

Let us spend one day as deliberately as nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls on the rails.

Henry David Thoreau

I’ve Been Thinking . . . about fundamentals.

I became interested in golf after graduating from college and marrying into a golf-playing family. Regrettably, I taught myself, and I might add, not very well. As my interest in the game grew, so did my performance expectations. Unfortunately, without learning the proper fundamentals, I found myself discovering undesirable locations on the golf course.

After a few years of playing the game, the acquisition of several bad habits, erratic inconsistency, and inflated scores, I sought the help of a professional. For the next year I had to unlearn everything I had taught myself. I was tempted more than once to return to my old swing. I was working so hard at the game but the improvements seemed minimal. Something wasn’t right.

Back to a professional I went. “I see some really good things in your swing,” he began. I knew I was going to love this guy. What an encourager. “But,” his voice registered with me again, “you have a few fundamental flaws.” I knew it. Thinking a few minor adjustments would perfect my swing was just too good to be true.

“Unless you have the right grip, set-up, and proper alignment it doesn’t matter how well you swing. These three golf fundamentals make it possible for your mind and body to hit the ball correctly.” I worked laboriously and am still working on those three fundamentals. His lesson stuck with me. Without the proper approach to the swing, I would continue to be frustrated with the results.

People unhappy with their present jobs, relationships, health, or status in life are unlikely to change their perceptions when their situation improves. They have conditioned themselves to focus on what they lack, life's unfairness, and their overwhelming circumstances. Their alignment is such that they consistently set themselves up for poor shots at life.

Every time I approach a golf ball, I think about grip, set-up and alignment -- getting myself focused. Life’s no different. Every event we encounter requires us to re-evaluate our focus. What are we looking for? Once focused, my behavior can become more consistently grooved to achieve desired outcomes.

At the end of his initial consultation with a client, the famous psychoanalyst Alfred Adler would ask this perceptive question: "What would you do if you were cured?" The patient would give an answer. Adler would listen carefully, contemplate the response, then get up, open the door, and reply, "Well, then, go and do it!"

The questions you ask amidst the circumstances of life will determine whether you remain under the control of circumstances or rise above them. When the undesirable (and even desirable) occurs, ask yourself:

"How can I use this situation to grow?"
"What action can I take?"
"How can I change my current situation to produce positive results?"
"What positive reactions do I choose?"

And then, as Alfred Adler would say, “go do it.”

A positive, expectant focus brings with it enthusiasm, hope, initiative, self-discipline, and new opportunities. In its absence, fear, worry, doubt, and irritability will prevail. Think about all of the positive possibilities and a "can-do" spirit will be activated.

Change habitual "Why me?" questions into empowering questions that promote action toward desirable outcomes. This change in focus will create the feelings and actions necessary for identifying the resources that will keep any situation from overwhelming you.

Whatever you focus on endures and expands. If you desire more crisis and negativity, focus on every intricate detail of unfairness. Dwelling on the negative will weaken you, while applying your emotional and physical energy toward solutions will identify what you're capable of achieving.

Focus on solutions, alternatives and opportunities.

“The turning point in your life comes when you begin to believe that you have within you that divine spark that can lead you to achieve anything that you want in life.”

Brian Tracy