Putting the Heckler In Your Head In His Place Is Critical To Playing Great Golf

"You dummy, you always do that when the pressure is on…"

"Call yourself a golfer?"

"You will most likely put this in the water…"

"Yes you can hit it well on the range, but you never take your game to the course…"

"You know you can't play to your handicap with a card in your pocket…"

Can you imagine if you're playing buddies talked to you this way? They'd not be your buddies too long.

The thing is, most of us have this dialogue going on in our minds in some way or other all the time!

Who's saying all this stuff to you? And Why?

I call him your Heckler, like Statler and Waldorf the two ornery, grumpy old men from The Muppet Show; never ceasing to heckle the rest of the cast from up above in their box seats.

Your Heckler will tell you: what you can't do, what you shouldn't do, why you don't deserve to play as well as you want.

When you do something well, he'll convince it was luck and you must be due some bad luck to balance it out.

When you do something bad, he'll tell you "I knew you would do that, you always do…"

So how can you deal with the Heckler?

How can you get him out of your game?

The dialogue will always be there, it will never fully disappear…

But here's the first important thing to know about the Heckler:

Your Heckler is encouraged by you answering back or engaging in any form of conversation, your Heckler feeds on you agreeing or disagreeing, rejecting its "advice" or thanking him. All these conversations you get into with him serve to encourage him more.

The secret to dealing with this interference when playing golf, (and life for that matter) is to not engage with it, don't feed him. If you ignore your Heckler, he'll wither; he loses the will to interfere.

The second thing to know about your Heckler is this:

Your Heckler is cunning, really cunning and even when you are playing well, and you've been successfully ignoring the Hecklers interference, your Heckler will do whatever he can you get back into any dialogue with you.

Most often he'll start to compliment you on your good play; he'll start telling you how you are almost reaching your full potential…

WARNING … this is when you have to be on you guard because the next thing he'll tell you is: he has some simple piece of advice that'll make all the difference to you …

BEWARE … this is his trick, your Heckler will convince you to take his advice, and now you've opened the door again, letting him back into you head again.

Remember, you play your best when you remove all the interruptions, remove all the interference - this will be when you play your best - and your true potential can been seen.

Let me ask you this:

Is he talking to you now?

Is your Heckler telling you this article is just some psychobabble, mumbo Jumbo stuff?

Trust yourself and ignore him, starve him of attention and look forward to playing to your full potential more often than ever before.

Have a great time out on the course and Keep Your Feet On The Short Grass.