Learning to Play Within Yourself

As today marks the start of the 100th PGA Championship, I'm reminded of one of greatest lessons one can learn from the game of golf. In life and in business, it's easy to see the applicability of concepts like "play it as it lies," but to me the part of the game of golf I've always connected with the most is the idea of playing within yourself.

We all know what our strengths are. We know when we take on a project that is within our wheelhouse and we know when the time is right to take a calculated risk. But the most beautiful part of the game of golf is that you receive a score. Some days that score is enough to win, and some days that score puts you in dead last. Your score is YOUR score, so if you do your best and post your score, you've done everything you can...it's all the things you can't control that decide whether you win or not.

Some people hate this concept about golf, but to me, it's always been the most applicable to everyday life. Sometimes we have great days and sometimes we have bad days, but what if I told you that on your bad days, you handled it better than anybody else could have. By handling the bad bounces life takes with grace and peace, you can take a step back and at the end of the day realize that you've come out on top.

Sometimes a score is enough to win.

Sometimes a score isn't enough to win.

You can only control what you can control, so play within yourself and do the best you can.