If there was a game I could recommend to every leader or anyone in executive management capacity, it would be golf. I used to think it was a game for lazy, idle, indulgent rich people who just leisurely swing a club, hit a ball and then walk in the ball’s direction until some years ago in Ibadan when I followed one of my sons in the faith to the golf course. That morning, he played 18 holes. By the time I walked with him for nine, my entire body was aching and I had to return to the reception area while he continued playing. With that experience, I learnt that golf is not a game for the slothful. Considering the terrain and the topography of the course and many of the holes, no flippant person can successfully play golf. No wonder it seems like it is a game exclusively for only the rich and the elite! I started playing the game this year and I am still relatively a newbie, so I lay no claim to mastery. I admit though that getting into it can be expensive at the initial stage, which is what scares many people, the investment is worth it for anyone who wants to learn some rudimentary things about effectiveness in life.
My focus today is on one aspect of the game. It is about what happens in what is called the Tee Box, the point from where you commence playing each hole. Your take-off from that point goes a long way in determining how you will fare on the hole.
The Tee is a peg-like pin that you first drive into the ground and on which you place your ball. Life will always give every man a platform to take off when we decide which hole we want to play. It is called opportunity. But only players stand in the box. Spectators and even caddies who ferry your kit around cannot be in it with you. They can only watch or cheer from the sidelines. While you are being trained, your pro (trainer) may help you with putting your Tee in the ground, but when you have mastered the process, that is left entirely to you. In the game of life, when push comes to shove, what you do with the opportunities given you depends entirely on you. It’s your game and it is different from your neighbours’.
The Tee is a support system for the ball that helps to position the ball. Ask the average person who believes that he is stranded and frustrated on life’s journey what he has or knows that he can do to get out of his predicament. Nine times out of ten, he will tell you that if he had anything, he would not be stranded. Many people are so focused on the lack that they cannot even imagine the abundance of resources inherent IN them. Contrary to what many people believe, we all have a basic support system on which our ball rests to give us a good shot at life’s game. It could be a strong family structure, a network of relationships, financial muscle, privileged education, exposure, a skill you have mastered or any other thing that you can leverage on as you take your take-off shot in the box.
The destination is the hole inside the green at the end of a hole. As important as that hole is, the process of getting there is very vital. It is that process that reveals what is known in golf as your handicaps, the parameters for measuring what you are becoming or have become in the game. Too many people are frustrated because, in their focus on a desired end, they want to avoid or despise process. Yet, without process, nobody knows what you have mastered. You may parade an intimidating array of credentials but when it comes to the school of life, your IQ (intellect) is subordinate to your EQ (Emotional Intelligence). People who have mastered the latter will always get ahead in life. Life is not so much about what you achieve as it is about how you achieved it, what you went through, endured and survived, the experiences that toughened you, sharpened your perspectives, honed your skills and generally made you a better person.
To take your aim, you take a good look ahead of you, then you position yourself in relation to your direction and desired reach. But as you swing, your eyes must be on the ball for accuracy, both of shot and distance.
To get a good shot, you use a club called the driver. In most holes, that first shot is expected to go very far. Life never gives you a second opportunity to make a first impression. So when life puts you in a Tee box, play the game with your best shot. The first shot you take may actually determine the outcome of your game on that stretch.
On the driver is an arrow which the player is supposed to use to guide the direction of the ball. This arrow is located in the centre of the top surface of the club so that it can be visible and used appropriately. On the surface of the club that is supposed to make contact with the ball, underneath where the arrow is located, is what is known as the ‘sweet spot”, ensconced between the two edges of the club. When you hit the ball with any of the two edges, you hear a dull sound and see your ball flying in a direction that could even take your ball off the course into a bush where you may never see that ball again or the ball only covers a distance that is abysmally below expectation.
Every golfer knows the value of the sweet spot. When your ball kisses the sweet spot, the sound is different. You hear a ‘ping’ sound that sounds more like a click and with minimum effort, the ball flies into the air and takes a straight trajectory that covers a significant distance. Golfers love that sound. It is as if the club itself is paying tribute to your game with that sound of applause. As if on cue, you will hear a round of applause or sounds of “Good shot!” from spectators and other players.
In life, you always have options. But greatness is attained when you are able to locate and master your sweet spot; that gift in you, a skill, a capacity that is innate but which needs to be harnessed and deployed for you to significantly succeed in a way that looks and feels like sweat-less victory. We all have it. But to profit from it takes discipline, diligence, focus constant practice that you only get by taking many swings even without a ball. These combine to determine how often you make the connection between the ball and the sweet spot.
One thing is certain. Every time that you hit it, even the club salutes you. And so will the rest of creation!
Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!
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