In year 2000, a friend introduced me to the world of golf. He gave me a golf set and dozens of golf balls. Why not, I thought. So I went to the driving range where I took my first lesson. Piece of cake, I bragged to myself as I was listening to my golf pro.
To my consternation, what I thought to be an easy job turned into a bit of frustration as I could not even hit the ball, swing after swing, no matter what. And after 7 buckets, I said enough. I quit. I went home with bruised fingers (I did not have a glove that time) and a badly hurt ego. What more, I got a sore body waking up the following day.
If there is one word to describe my first shot at golf, it would be ‘exasperating’, to say the least.
But how did I take the disappointment? I had two choices : wallow in my first failure at golf or to pick up myself and try again. Rather than giving up, I opted to keep swinging.
I went back to the driving range and took the lessons seriously. The hardest part of my golfing is experiencing series disappointments as I was struggling to reach a certain score as desired but never succeeded at first.
The more I hated my failures, the more I got challenged to improve, one game at a time.
This is the same way I see life.
We experience many ups and downs in our life, so many disappointments and frustrations. But we have choices to make, either to give up or shape up. Like golf, it is how we respond to those bad shots in our life. We just have to pick up the pieces and begin anew. A golfer who quits
after a bad shot is not going to improve on his game. Improving is learning from bad shots, and pursuing a desired goal, mirroring the need for improvement in life.
A renowned golfer, Peter Jacobsen once said : “One of the most fascinating things about golf is how it reflects the cycle of life. No matter what you shoot – the next day you have to go back to the first tee and begin all over again and make yourself into something.”
Like golf where we get bad breaks from good shots, and good breaks from bad shot, the same is true in life, we just need to move on. As we golfers say it, hit the ball where it lies.
It is the acceptance of unfavorable circumstances and make the best of them, and learning from the experience in navigating life’s challenges.
