Life Via a Line

I have noticed a pattern of finding it difficult to stay engaged once the initial excitement of something has worn off. I am great with short term goals and often actually prefer them.  I will give up anything to achieve it. Long-term goals for me are fine but sometimes I struggle to hold motivation.  I have followed through many long-term goals in my life, my goal to get to + figures in golf being my greatest.  Often, self doubt, fear of success and a concern that the goal is not realistic are reasons I have often failed or gone off track.  I have learnt that at any point, I can change the goal, revise it or dump it and start again. Self doubt easily creeps in, it's easy to feel powerless, I have found that it helps me to remind myself I am in charge.  When the going gets tough for me, I feel like the choices that were made long ago were possibly not mine. Sometimes, I have to remind myself that I am the one who originally set this goal.  I o...

For me pain is inevitable.  Suffering, I always was taught to believe was optional but I seem to have done my fair share of this aswell. I have never fully understood how pain and suffering were different from each other.  I kind of took it for granted that one was the inevitable consequence of the other. Yesterday, I had a very emotional day, I also had a very sleepless night.  I sit here writing this and look back on some very painful episodes in my life.  In some of my painful episodes, the immediate visceral pain was searing, then afterwards I felt overwhelmed with grief, quite naturally. S uffering is the added extra our mind adds to an already painful situation. Pain cannot be avoided, it's the price of being a human being with a heart, there are ways we can reduce this kind of self generated suffering.  I remember over the years reading this time & time again. In the midst of difficult situations, I’ve sometimes said to myself, my life will...

British Independence Day came and went on 23rd June, the day on which, a year ago we as a country voted to leave the EU.  I am a remain voter but have accepted the % that voted leave won so let it be. Today, we do not have a strong government to move brexit forward.  I fear investment will drift quicker than the Thames out of the UK, Ireland will have an internal border and the NHS will end when all the immigrant workers flock home.  The recent Queens speech had 8 brexit bills in it, designed to attempt to recapture fading power, to restore control over farming and fishing, to make trade deals with the rest of the world and end free movement and rule by unelected European judges. I am unsure personally if Maybe can see this through to be honest, I feel she has totally lost control now and Hammond is demanding a Soft Brexit.  I see the Pro-EU Tories lining up planning to join labour and the liberals are still fighting for continued membership of a s...

The LPGA recently introduced a new dress code that forbids female golfers from sporting plunging necklines, leggings or revealing skirts on the course, it has come into massive criticism for this.  Initial reactions were overwhelmingly negative, with even Teen Vogue having a say.  The progressive and influential youth magazine also said the code sets players and women in general “way back”. From July 17th, the LPGA began its crack down on athletic wear following an email sent on the 2nd July to all LPGA players.  The email came from player president Vicki Goetze-Ackerman, which detailed an extensive list of clothing that will no longer be allowed on course and at pro-am parties on the tour.  A $1,000 fine will be handed to any player for their first offence concerning the new code.  With each subsequent breach the funds will double.  Items in the new code were expressed in the following dot points in Goetze-Ackerman’s email: Racerback...

Every New Year, nearly everyone of us start with a good intention or even a list of intentions.  A single or a list of things that we are going to start or stop doing. The New Year feels fresh, exciting and we all finally decide it's time to stop messing around and the time has come to be the person that we’ve always wanted to be. At some point in the year, the shine wears off and we start to go back to old patterns and behaviours, Unfortunately some of us even write off the entire year if we’ve failed at our new years resolutions by the time we hit February!  Often we decide to try again next year, holding on to the idea that a new year somehow magically makes it possible for us to do better.  This little trick we play on ourselves, it’s a way to opt out of truly engaging in our lives. We’re effectively cheating ourselves and switching off because it’s too hard to keep showing up.  When I was younger, I used to do this nearly every year.  I would...

I am writing this during the commercial breaks of GOT. Today, I have had a very challenging day.  Leading up to today I was overcome with constant worry that virtually consumed me. This evening, I feel exhausted but I also feel comforted and free as a bird because although I believed I was maintaining some level of control with all the worry, I wasn't in control at all; I was simply on a never ending walk carrying a heavy, unnecessary, self-imposed weight on my back.  Today that weight has been lifted.  It has taken a long time to unload my backpack but gradually, I strengthened my trust and today let it go. I strengthened my trust when I started to let go of the tight grip I was trying to maintain over my life and trusting that everything would work out for the best when I stopped trying to control absolutely everything. Gripping something so tightly with my hands for so long was forceful, hard to maintain, and tiring. I chose to have faith that everything was goi...

Brook Koepka, a 27yr old former 3 time All American and Florida State University player lifted the US Open at Erin Hills recently with a score of 16 under, which Is believe equals the record set back in 2011 by Rory McIlroy. Brook was 4 shots ahead of the field at Erin Hills.  Little did people realise that he gave up his European Tour Membership back in 2015.  Brook played a lot in Europe at the start of his career. This is the seventh major in a row in which the winner is actually a first time champion.  Looking back at the era between July 14-August 15, six majors were dominated by Speith, Day and Mcllroy alone.  I am intrigued what this new crop of twenty somethings will go on to achieve.  Koepka, Fleetwood and Matsuyama are all rapidly improving their game and their world ranking and are all readily applying pressure.