Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Let Tiger's Third Swing Change Be Inspiration for Your Self Improvement

As a sport fan (not a fanatic), I tend to equate many of life's trials and tribulations to those which occur in sports on the playing field.

Golf is no exception. Observing Tiger struggle for the 3rd time changing his swing, I thought to myself, "That is true commitment to self improvement".

Let's look at this a little further. In 1998 Woods only won one PGA Tour event. This was the first "Tiger Slump" we heard of. He was with his old coach Butch Harmon at that time, and was going through the first of what would be 3 swing changes. After the first change...well you know, the rest is history. He had a record 2000 and continued his dominance over the sport, and was crowned athlete of the decade.

Compare that to you, in your career. In preparation for the next level of your career, you attend a seminar or training class that really impacts you and helps you reach that next level. In this new management position, with your new swing you hit a rhythm and start to perform well. This new rhythm is clearly at a level above your previous performance, so you begin to feel comfortable with the success and praise that you are receiving. This feeling of comfort is "The Tipping Point" 85% of us love this comfort zone and will stay here forever. 10% will fall out of the comfort zone; for some reason or other they cannot sustain this new level of performance. The last 5% will dominate this zone, get bored and look for new challenges.

WHO BENEFITS THE MOST FROM CORPORATE TRAINING?

We have all seen people go through various corporate funded training classes and come out totally unaffected. Some of the meanest nastiest SOB's I know have been to "Play to Win" training over 5 times.

Human Resources and management at your job, do not know what percentage you fall into. They might have an idea, but it's hard to detect the upper 5% from the pack of Eighty five Percenters. They don't know if you will stay, fall or continue to rise, so they send your entire department to anew training class. After this training you are faced with a decision, "Do you want t reach the next level and make a change, or stay exactly where you are".

Most of us are comfortable and will choose to stay put. For example, many of us play golf. We shoot in the 80's or 90's. In order to go lower, we would have to change something drastic. Little tweaks and tips from your buddies are not going to work anymore. In order to shoot into the 70's we will need to possibly change our grip, or perhaps change our stance, things we have done over and over for years! These things are incredibly hard to change and takes dedication and practice, with the risk that you might not reach your goal and possibly screw up what you already knew.

Do you see the parallels? All these things are necessary if we want to get to that next level. Tiger is now in the process of doing this for the 3rd Time! His dedication to self improvement is driving him to make a third swing change, in the middle of the PGA Tour, Fed Ex Cup, & the Ryders. He knows that if he pulls this off, he will be unstoppable. Not to mention, he couldn't live with himself if he didn't try.

Now back to you and your training class. You've learned something in this new class that could make you superstar. In order to implement these changes it will take a huge effort on your part. To modify your behavior takes dedication and practice, drive and focus. Every day. This is what's necessary for you to reach your next level. Sure it's easier to stay where you are but you have to ask yourself, "Am I a pussy (cat) or a Tiger".

Self improvement is a difficult never ending journey, and few people are willing to make that trip or they take it, but decide not to continue after a certain point. That's why the road to the top is a pyramid. There is very little of us at the top. Only some of us are brave enough to correct our swings, and a few crazy enough to do it 3 times.

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They wouldn't let me post this in Ezine articles because they didn't like the way I was promoting my webiste in the Signature. Well guess what??This site is mine, and I can promote any way I want:
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So There!
-MJL