Golf is one of the most interesting games in the world. At the top level, the best players don’t win that often. Arguably the greatest season in professional golf was in 2000 when Tiger Woods won 9 times on the PGA Tour. He played in 20 events that season, which was about his average.
Ben Hogan played in six events in 1953. He had been forced to play in fewer events a few years earlier after sustaining severe injuries in a car accident. He won five of the six events he entered. In 2008, Tiger did something similar when he won 4 of the 6 events he entered before electing to have knee surgery.
The bottom line is that in golf, like in life, there is a lot more “losing” that occurs than winning.
Winning Can Be Subjective
There are games that we play. Golf is one. All sports are games. Board games. Video games. All kinds of things. If you and I play a game of H-O-R-S-E on the basketball court and you win, then I lose. It’s pretty straightforward. The goal is to win the game. Whatever the game might be.
But what if you’ve been playing basketball your entire life and I’m just beginning? Maybe we had previously played a game and I got you to O before I lost. This time when we played I got you to S before I lost.
Does that count as a win for me?
So improvement is often a win. Yes, you ultimately want to win a game. I remember growing up I would play my dad in checkers. He would win all the time. Finally, after probably hundreds of games I was able to win one. The same thing happened in golf. It took me a long time to be able to shoot a better score.
Improvement and Quitting
Most things in life are about improvement. You’re going to lose or do worse than others in most things when you’re first starting out. But that doesn’t mean you need to stop doing something. It’s important to focus on the little signs of improvement. How are you doing compared to what you had previously done? What can you do to improve today? What process can you put in place to see improvement?
If you’re really focused on something it’s most about improvement. Work, hobbies, sports or whatever. If you’ve set your focus on something you want to focus on improving. You can celebrate the wins. Like getting a big sale or making a really great hire. But get back to focusing on the improvement after that so you keep moving forward.
Final Thoughts
I was listening to two guys talking one time. One was kind of joking with the other about a few failures that had occurred. But the other guy looked at him calmly and just said something to the effect of:
Yes, that didn’t work out. But you don’t need to win every time. You just need to win once or twice.
That’s really stuck with me. Most of life is about coming up short. I can see it all the time with my daughter. She’s been improving at things for her entire short life. But she doesn’t see things as losing. In fact, she sees most things as a win. Walking, talking, jumping, holding a fork, drawing a picture. All kinds of things. They’re all wins.
She gets it. I don’t know if as we get older we kind of lose that. The losing can sting. Maybe we think life is all about winning. But maybe we just need to redefine what winning is.