“Aim for the pin, not the water” - a lesson from Armando.
Posted on May 15, 2024
Last month I was lucky enough to travel to the Dominican Republic for work. We were able to make some significant strides as a management team.
We still made plenty of time for golf, of course.
We played at the gorgeous Corales Golf Course in Punta Cana. Although my golf performance was not the strongest, it was a great time.
The course provided each of us with a caddy:
My caddy’s name was Armando.
Armando grew up in the DR and was no stranger to the game of golf. He provided a handful of tips that helped me improve my game in our 18-holes together.
While his English was certainly lacking (my spanish is not any better), I was able to understand him just enough to have a productive round of golf.
I had several ugly moments – in which Armando would laugh before offering some coaching. I also had a few strokes (not many) that I was pretty proud of – which Armando would crack a proud grin accompanied by his nod of approval and thumbs-up (this always felt good).
We eventually reached hole 15, which was placed right up against the ocean with panoramic views.
While the scenery was awesome, being against the water like that makes for a pretty intimidating hole.
Hook a shot just a little too far left, and it’s going swimming.
After a half decent tee shot, Armando drove the cart up to my ball and I prepared for my approach.
An “approach” refers to a golfer’s stroke that is made with the intention of reaching the green.
I had a solid look at the green. I had an even better look at the millions of miles of water just left of the green.
I began strategizing my plan for how I could hit this shot to avoid going in the water. “How should I position my body? What club should I use? How hard should I swing?” I thought to myself as I prepared for the shot.
“Hit ball just left of pin.” Armando interupted in his heavy accent.
Well duh, but not sure if you noticed Armando, the Atlantic Ocean is also left of the pin. If I were to hit the ball too far left, it would go in the water.
I verbalized my concern. “But what if it goes into the water?” I said smiling.
Armando swiftly replied. “Don’t aim for water bro, aim just left of pin...”
He was puzzled with my concern since he had clearly instructed me to aim left of the pin, not for the water.
Then it hit me. Armando was right. Why am I worrying about the water? Why is that what my brain chose to focus on? He instructed me to “aim left of the pin,” but for some reason I understood that as “aim toward the water.”
“Fair enough,” I thought to myself. Took one deep breath, and swung. I stroked a perfect shot right next to the pin.
It’s pretty funny - I was so fixated on how to adjust my swing in order to avoid the water. Turns out, I didn’t need to change anything. The language barrier between Armando and I had helped me here, as it caused me to simplify, or even oversimplify the decision – which is exactly what I needed.
Okay, so why write an article about this random golf moment?
I’ll tell you why. This moment reminded me that in both life and business we will need to make imperfect decisions, and that is okay. We want our decisions to be well thought out, to backed by data, to be calculated, to be… perfect.
Sometimes, we just need let it rip.
If we spend all our time focusing on the problems, the dangers, and the risks of our decisions, we will make half-hearted decisions that are destined to fail.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t supposed to be motivation to go make impulsive or uneducated decisions and risk it all. The point I am trying to make is
You hit what you aim for.
If I were to hit that golf shot with the intention of “not going in the water,” guess what? My ball would’ve probably gone in the water.
We make things harder for ourselves by focusing on factors that are outside of our control. Dr. Fred Luskin at Stanford University found that 80% of human thoughts are negative, and 90% of our thoughts are repetitive. Man, that is a sobering statistic.
Perception is reality.
Due to the nature of my job, I am having hundreds of conversations every single day. Yet, the most important conversations I have are the ones that happen between my two ears. The things that I tell myself and the way I choose to perceive things can be the difference maker between burning out or marching on.
So, let’s march. 🚶