After the Saturday morning round, where Rose and Henrik Stenson teamed up to make 10 birdies in a row, Justin was interviewed about his performance. Paraphrasing, Rose said, "The pressure of the Ryder Cup creates a razor's edge. You can focus in on the feeling of making the putt or you can let your attention drift to failure"
I think that the key word that Justin used was "feeling". Rose wasn't talking so much about a purely mental process of visualization of success, he was talking about a focus on an emotional result. He was centering in on the feeling of joy and excitement, of the pump of the fist and the roar of the crowd that would come from a made putt.
The supercomputer of the human mind is a powerful thing indeed. Thoughts that are connected to powerful human emotions take on another level of what can best be called magic, being in the zone, "feeling it".
Tiger Woods, at the height of his dominance, was a master of this kind of focus. The focus was completely on drawing the roar of the crowd. He fed off of it and his focus became truly razor sharp. There were times when you would watch Tiger prepare to hit a shot and just by the look in his eyes and his body language you would become convinced that he was about to make that shot, as unlikely as that result might be.
I see this happening for the European Ryder Cup team. You just have this feeling that they already see themselves celebrating as a team on the 18th green. They are popping the champagne bottles in their minds on Friday morning and, of course, it happens in reality on Sunday afternoon.
Next time you go out to practice, see if you can focus in on the feeling you want to have after a shot. Feel what it would be like to hit a perfect shot, before you hit the shot.
Also, next time you have one of those "knife through butter" swings or a putt rolls perfectly end-over-end, going in without a doubt, let that feeling sink in. Hold onto those moments and take note of that emotional quality of them. That is the feeling that creates the wonder and magic about the game of golf and is the reason we play this crazy game.
So a slight change to what Chevy Chase's character, Ty Webb said to Danny Noonan in "Caddyshack" would be, "See your future Danny, feel, feel, FEEL your future."
This is also applicable to life beyond the golf course. Successful people who are living their dreams and making magic happen in their careers and home life often talk about creating a vision, but also focusing in on what it would feel like to achieve this vision. They spend time every day feeling it like it has already happened.
The power of this approach is that in your internal world, you have already achieved this success because you already feel the result. The supercomputer of the mind, and some believe, a mysterious force in the universe (which goes by many names) begins working to support this inner vision and feeling.
Even if you don't believe in a magical aspect to the universe, feeling what it would be like to achieve your highest vision of your life is healthy and good, not just for yourself, but for all the people around you. You will be happier, lighter and move in the world with more quiet confidence, because you already feel what it is your after...and that is truly the key. It is not the outer reality that dictates the inner feeling, but the inner feeling that shapes the outer reality.
Don't believe me? Try it in the laboratory of your own experience and see.
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