Turning Points and The Masters

The Masters golf tournament is on just now.

I’m no afficionado and can offer nothing when it comes to talking about golf.

The reason I mention it is that turning points in my life have often happened when it is on.

It’s on at the same time every year, when in the UK we are turning from the grip of winter to the riot of spring.

That familiar golf course, the famed green jacket, all of that is on somewhere in the background media as my life begins to change.

The first time I remember, I was still at school and had been sentenced to a week’s worth of detentions.

That was back in 1988. Sitting in a class room copying out a punishment exercise I had been given, I made a decision.

Or, how can I put this... a decision was made inside of me.

I had this sense inside that I was telling myself to stop being the way I was being.

To change.

I was fourteen at the time and more likely to be a school leaver by sixteen than anything else. I was into everything that teenagers are not supposed to be into, but are.

Mainly, I was always in trouble. I wouldn’t claim that I was a lost cause, but that is the road I was heading down, and at speed.

Then it came.

From somewhere deep inside, that I was going to change, I was going to university to study law.

Just like that.

At that moment, stuck in detention and with a long list of priors, I didn’t tell anyone else about that decision.

Not that anyone would have believed me, but I didn’t waste my breath.

Over that weekend in 1988, I came up with a road map for how this idea could become a reality.

As parts of the plan came to me, one of our own, Scottish golfer Sandy Lyle was putting together a great tournament.

By the time I had my plan to move from delinquency to university, Lyle had won.

It took another 2+ years before I was accepted to study law.

When that happened, everyone acted as though it was inevitable.

It was funny to me.

The same teachers who had attempted to block me from being able to study the subjects I needed to, were now acting as if they knew I always had it in me.

The guidance teacher who recommended I try for work at the local factory was similarly amnesiac.

That journey was only the first I can remember.

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During another Masters I hatched the plan that moved me from ￡140,000 in debt to having ￡5,000 in my account within six months.

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During another, I made the pivot from being a rank-and-file member of the drinks industry to one that was being interviewed on the TV news and presenting on a series on Channel 4.

Another Masters saw us move from being renters to being homeowners before the schools broke for the summer holidays.

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The house we live in now (and have renovated) guess what was on when we first viewed it?

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The funny thing about turning points is that from the outside you are still in the same shitty situation you were in, but things begin to seem different to you.

There is a sense that change is on its way.

It isn’t guaranteed.

All of the external things have to happen – plans have to be made, actions taken, relationships built, services rendered.

But the game-changer is getting yourself to the turning point.

If you want to ask me how to get to your turning point, DM me and we can have a virtual coffee and a chat.

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Enjoy the Masters!

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