One of the biggest professional golf events took place last weekend, “The Masters” and without speaking to the winner (Hideki Matsuyama) to understand his deeper thoughts on the day, can you take it for granted that he was in his “Zen place”, or in “flow” or any other term that explains how he kept in control and performed to win? 

Oprah Winfrey says the one book she has on her bedside table is “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle. That book definitely is a tribute to being in your “Zone”, operating in your unique place with a focused mindset to live for right now. It can be a tough read to get into but stick at it and you will find it worthwhile.  

The basic premise is there is nothing more important than right now because there will never be a time when it's not right now. What you are doing in the moment is all that matters. But because of our natural tendency to “Think in Time”, dwelling on the past, worrying about the future and doing it in a continuous loop, no matter if it's rational or helps us, we end up spending less time in the NOW as we should. Let's use an example to understand this more.  

Let's just say in the past you had an experience that didn't work out so well. In the moment you constantly worried, you practiced “Thinking in Time '' and I guess what you got in the end is what you were worrying about all along. Basically, your performance was lackluster and it impacted your self-belief, standing in your job and performance outcome. Now some time has passed, and you are in a new job or doing new work, but that experience sits heavily on you and impacts how you think about what you are doing NOW. So, you jump to the past and worry about long past results then, bypass the now and jump to the future and worry about what if that happened all over again. This continues in a loop, meaning you are not present enough and in the NOW to be effective. You are not able to leave past outcomes just as that, outcomes that could have gone any number of ways, and should be left in the past only taking the learnings. I started to watch a corny movie recently and halfway through I bailed out but thankfully not before one quote popped up that applies to this situation. “We cling to memories as if they define us, but they really don’t. What we do NOW is what defines us – Ghost in the shell.  

Ever since I have read the power of now, I have been working hard to practice being present. It's difficult, just like trying to block out random thoughts coming into your head when you are meditating. I've never been able to do that for long and let's be honest can anyone? Perhaps Eckhart can? 😊  

I decided one day to really test the power of Now and its potential impact on performance. I play golf, so one afternoon while playing a friendly game with two friends I challenged myself to be totally in the “Now” for the first 9 holes, and I didn’t tell my companions about my challenge. Golf is notorious for “Thinking in Time” as the ball might be laying in a thick lump or grass or a divot and your head can start to say “this shot is going to be hard, I’m not good at bunker shots”, or “I don’t want to do what I did last week when I was in a similar predicament”, or “there is water on the left and I also need to stay away from that bunker on the right”, or “plus there seems to be muck on the ball and that’s going to impact its flight” etc., etc., etc. and on it goes all in a blink of an eye. This is classic “Thinking in Time” and not being in the NOW.  

My plan was simple: pick the spot where I wanted to land the ball, get up and take the shot. If it didn’t go well, I fully focused on accepting it and moving onto my next shot. I said to myself, “Next shot, don’t worry you did your best”. I didn’t focus on the detail trappings and saying to myself “I need to get this next shot in the hole to save par” or “I need to land the ball on the right side of the green or I would be in trouble with water or bunker”, I just focused on taking the shot and staying positive, with a hint of compassion and big sprinkling of being in the “NOW”. The result was I shot 39 strokes for the front 9 before my handicap, which was three over for the par 36 for the 9 holes. I might have done that once before. I was so happy and to be honest mentally drained that I couldn’t focus the same way for the remaining holes. But I was a believer from then on that staying in the NOW just makes sense, although never easy.    

As I was playing better and better, I was more aware of my fellow players complaining about their bad shots and  dismayed how I was playing so well and how they would stay in contention with me. At first it spurred me on but after a while it got to me and I’m not sure why but probably a realization that it must be what I normally do, constantly moving from positive to negative thoughts so often and vice versa instead of living in the now. At one stage I wanted them to just shut up with the negative vibes because I was so attuned to being positive. It was an eye opener that we can all do this and it does impact on our mood, happiness and performance and the people around us.  

Hideki said he was nervous for his whole final round of the Masters and you could see it right from the off when he bogeyed the first hole. But he still performed and won because he has ingrained performance routines and habits that kicked in and occupied his thoughts to help him stay in the Now, even when nervous. As a result, he didn’t drown “Thinking in time” but performed and won. Fantastic win for him and his Country.   

Yours right NOW,