Beliefs Shape Your Game By Wade Pearse

Beliefs – How They Shape Your Game

Golf is simple. That’s right, you heard me correctly. Golf is simple. This is a belief. This is my belief. Now the majority of people would challenge me on this saying I am a fool! Golf is simple? What? There aren’t many golfers who’d agree with me on this one. Yet it is my belief. And because I believe it my experience matches my belief.

Those of you who’ve worked with me or visited my website know I’m a self taught golfer. From using the mind as it was designed anyone can experience a higher level of performance and satisfaction. The game is as difficult as you believe it is…

Beliefs are Addictive

First we need to understand that beliefs are like drugs. They are extremely addictive. It’s true. Many people treat their beliefs like they’re an addiction and suffer extreme withdrawals if someone tries to take them away! The more emotionally invested we are in a belief the more addicted to it we become.

This addictive quality makes change a difficult thing for most athletes. A key area of focus for me when working with clients is to soften limiting beliefs, making them pliable to the hands of change.

Imagine the possibility of actually choosing your beliefs instead of randomly absorbing the prevailing beliefs of the day? Do you realize the majority of beliefs you hold weren’t consciously created by you? For the most part the beliefs we carry were accepted and acted upon unconsciously. Many of them haven’t been checked for validity at all! Hey, the world was once flat, remember…

Follow me here…There are two players and both are taking lessons. One player “believes” golf is fun and easy, yet might not even know how to shoot good scores yet. The other player is being taught that golf is difficult and that it’s a struggle to get good. Who do you think will improve the quickest? Without any coercion to affect your response I will bet that most of you would say the first player will get more from the game and learn quicker.

We’ve all heard that beliefs are very powerful, right? So why don’t we use them properly and to our advantage?

Mainly because we do not truly understand how they're shaped and that they can be changed. In order to begin to change them we need to first understand how they take shape.

Beliefs work in concert with sensory evidence. (even if this “evidence” is erroneous at times) Once you have some evidence that supports a belief, that belief becomes more solid to you. Your mind is now conditioned to find more evidence that supports the belief. Beliefs are like missiles: they are very focused on their target => evidence.

One of the sections in the Minding Your Game™ coaching course is dedicated to beliefs and how to change them to support your outcomes. Beliefs are dynamic, not static. They are not solid and unchangeable, as they might seem to be. And one more thing: you are not your beliefs! I'll let you ponder that one on your own time.

Design New Beliefs

Let's say I'm a 16 handicapper. I hit a bad shot and feel some frustration inside and say to myself, “What an idiot. I can't play this game worth crap. Lesson after lesson and I STILL hit the ball like a beginner. I can't learn this stupid game.”

Ok, let's take a brief look at the belief installation process...

I like to call this a Scaffold of Belief. It is built from the ground up with the belief resting atop the scaffold. It looks like this:

Let's look closer at the “I’m a 16 handicapper” example above:

Perception – I hit a bad shot.
Evaluation – what an idiot.
Conclusion – I can't play this game worth crap.
Evidence – lesson after lesson and I still hit the ball like a beginner.
Belief – I can't learn this stupid game

Ouch. A very disempowering belief, wouldn't you agree?

The process is complete. This process happens in an instant sometimes, while other times it is more gradual. The determining factor is the intensity of the experience.

You now have a “solid” belief that will guide your decisions and therefor your results. Ultimately your experience on the golf course will be directly affected by this.

Now what if you had the key to creating new and empowering beliefs that would transform your game from the inside out? How much faster will you learn? How low could you really go with beliefs that are designed to support your goals? Beliefs are fluid, not solid. New ones can be designed and installed by you. We are quantum beings with a mostly untapped reservoir of potential. Explore yours today…