Staying on task can be difficult, but it can be particularly challenging when you are surrounded by constant distraction, especially in the game of golf. The ability to concentrate on your golf game required direct mental effort. Mental focus is critical for learning new things and performing well across a wide variety of situations.
Whether you are trying to improve your swing or compete in a club championship or a member guest, your ability to focus can mean the difference between winning or feeling like you just played your worst.
Fortunately, focus is a mental exercise. Think of your brain as a mental muscle, the more you work on building your ability to focus the stronger it gets. It will take some real effort on your part and you may have to make some changes to some of your daily habits. Here are some tips and tricks from psychology that can help you develop laser-like mental focus and concentration.
Before you start working toward improving your mental focus, you might want to begin by assessing just how strong your mental focus is at the present moment. If you daydream when you are on the green, you can’t tune out distractions, and you lose track of your progress you probably need to work on your mental focus.
Next step is to become aware of distractions and eliminate them. Sounds obvious, yet many golfers under estimate just how many distractions prevent them from concentrating on their golf game. One way to deal with distractions is to learn how to tune out your surroundings. Not all distractions come from outside sources. Exhaustion, worries, anxiety, poor motivation, and other internal disturbances can be particularly difficult to avoid.
Make sure you are well rested prior to your match and to don’t have negative discussion at the office, at home, or with friends. Think positive and imagine you are someone else not you in order to deflect the anxiety and worry.
If you find your mind wandering toward distracting thoughts, consciously bring your focus back to the green. Just limit your focus to the ball and you. Think of your attention as a spotlight. If you shine that spotlight on one particular area, you can see things very clearly. If you were to try to spread that same amount of light across a large dark room, you might instead only glimpse the shadowy outlines.
Be present. It’s tough to stay mentally focused when you are assessing and judging each shot, worrying about your future shot, or tuned out of the present moment. This notion of being present is also essential for recapturing your mental focus. Staying engaged in the here and now keeps your attention sharp and your mental resources honed in on the details that really matter at a specific point in time.
It may take some time but work on learning to truly live in the moment. You cannot change the past and the future has not happened yet.