How to respond when you’re knocked off your game
We all get knocked off our game at times.
While watching the US Open golf tournament a couple months back, an incident happened to one of the contenders who is normally calm cool and collected. Typically this guy saunters when he walks and he never looks like he’s in a hurry. As I turn on the TV, I see him storm off the green. I’m thinking, “I wonder what happened to him.”
It turns out he took a quadruple bogey (four over par). Not good, especially for a pro. This could have happened to anyone in the tournament (and it happens to me more than I like to admit).
While I’ve long known others can sense when I’m knocked off my game, his golf mishap really crystallized how obvious it is to others when I’m knocked off my game. The problem when you get knocked off your game, while everyone else notices it, chances are you are completely unaware and you end up being so self focused, unless you regain your mental control, it’s going to detrimentally impact what you do next.
I’m sure this particular golfer regrouped and regained his composure before his next tee-shot because he birdied the hole (one under par). I’d be shocked if he didn’t have a predetermined routine he uses to recover after getting knocked off kilter.
There are two practices I use to help me recover when getting knocked off my game (which happened a couple of times last week).
The first one helps me be more aware of when I’m knocked off my game. I review my day. When I go to bed at night, the last thing I do most nights is mentally run through my day and notice the good and notice how I responded in each situation—and whether I accepted it or pushed it away. No matter my response, I don’t beat myself up. I try to learn and be more aware. While I don’t often finish the day before falling asleep, this simple exercise has been a game changer in building self-awareness
The second practice starts the moment I realize I’ve been knocked off my game. I ask myself, “Steve, what are you grateful for in this moment.”
What practices do you use to regroup when you’ve been knocked off your game ?
