Is it our eyesight or is it our focus?

Sport can be a very interesting representation of life in a wider sense.

An old friend of mine once told me an interesting story of his long running battle with chipping from around the green in golf.

He was suffering from a total breakdown in his action once he came within 20 yards of the green itself, fluffing, thinning and duffing shots and this became a downward spiral that began to depress him whenever he even thought about the game.

I remember a round when he had chipped surprisingly well.  He was discussing it in the bar after and couldn’t put his finger upon why he felt more confident during the round.  That evening he discovered that he had been wearing the wrong glasses that day.  He usually wore a certain pair for golf but had forgotten them.  There was his answer.  He felt more confident because actually he could see the ball better with his other glasses.

Easy and logical.

Sometime later he was playing a round and chipping the ball beautifully.  One thing was strange though.  At the end of the round he discovered he was wearing his original glasses that had been causing him problems.  This came as a shock.

It appeared therefore that the equipment wasn’t at fault, just his confidence!

We can be fooled by our own potential; and often are.  When I began this business I left a ‘secure’ job.  One thing that had held me back for too long was the sense of security I had in my monthly wage.  Interestingly, that sense of security was misplaced.  If I hadn’t sold anything my job would have been under very real threat.  The money was my metaphorical pair of glasses.  Once removed, I realized it had only affected my perspective, not the actual facts.

We need to take those glasses off every now and then and realise that it isn’t our eyesight, it’s our focus that will help us realise our potential.