Before & After The 1% Mindset!

This next 1% story comes from a former football player, turned golfer. He's composed, quiet, and a total fighter. When we met, he was afraid of all the negative, making that negative manifest in his life. On the golf course, he continued to focus on all the things he didn't want to happen. His mind could only see the potential mistakes, and thought it was out of his control. We immediately began working on what he thought and said to himself. Our biggest goal for Darell was to help him see the possibilities, and help him believe he could have anything he worked for. The only person that could keep him from reaching his goals was him... specifically his thoughts, words, and actions. By changing his thought process,  his self-talk and actions immediately changed, giving him better results. 

This is his before-and-after the 1% mindset:

Before 1%, I was just a person who thought I was a good golfer, and thought I was on the right track by practicing everyday. I really wasn’t because there is totally more to it then that. Just "TRYING" wasn't working, but I kept telling myself it would. Basically, I was just going out everyday working and changing my swing as I went because I felt that I must be doing something wrong since I'm not even playing close to how I should be. I was so inconsistent. One day I would shoot a 71,72 and the next day it would be 80,82. It was ridiculous and irritating because I just wasn’t getting better, and feeling like I was reaching my plateau. I knew my mental game had a part to do with how I wasn’t succeeding. I made all sorts of excuses besides my mental game, such as needing better clubs, better coach, and should be playing better courses. You name it, I made the excuse for my poor play. I only made those excuses because I needed some sort of safety blanket to make me feel better about myself on reasons why I did horrible, rather then just accepting the fact I played bad. In reality, I was just scared on the golf course. I was scared of failure, but in order to succeed we must fail first. It had been so long since something good  happened. I was waiting for something to just magically happen, and felt by practicing everyday, it would somehow just randomly hit me one day. Thus, if I kept waiting, I would still be waiting... and wouldn’t have gotten anywhere near to where I am today.

 Now with the 1% mindset, it has totally (and I mean totally) changed how I look, not just at my golf game, but with life as well. Working with Coach Dayne has honestly changed my life for the better. It has taught me to become so much more positive and have a lot more confidence, rather then being scared all the time. Being scared is just a roadblock, and will set you back from making any progress. Doing things to be separated from the pack is what it’s all about! In order to separate, you must do things others aren‘t willing to do; being uncomfortable in order to become truly comfortable. When others make excuses about the cold, the wind, or the greens being too slow, for example, I just use that to my advantage. I WILL not let something like that effect how I play my game because that is just an EXCUSE, and therefore a safety blanket. 

My mindset now is not that I need new clubs, better coach, or be playing the best courses in the world. Instead, I'm focused on having a better mindset. My mindset, alone, will change my game. I can have the best swing in the world, but by having the wrong mindset, "perfect swing" will fold under pressure when I need it most! Working the mental aspect is crucial to success, because without it, I will just be AVERAGE. Who wants to be AVERAGE? I definitely don’t! 

I recently changed my mindset, and am realizing how powerful the mind really is!!!! Perfect example for me that made it crystal clear: I learned that by trying NOT TO HIT IT OUT OF BOUNDS, my mind never heard the "don't," actually making me hit it out. It had been only responding to "hit it out of bounds." If my mind can make me hit it out, then it could also make me HIT IT DOWN THE MIDDLE. All I had to do was begin focusing on exactly what I wanted, rather than what I was afraid of. That showed me just how powerful my mind really was, so why not use it to help me focus on the positive thoughts instead of all the negative?  

Lastly, one of the biggest things I learned from being 1% is living EXCUSE free! Being EXCUSE free made my life so much easier, and instantly freed my mind... resulting in better and more positive results. I could go on all day about how this way of thinking has truly changed my life. The 1% mindset has gotten me this far, totally changing how I think and act. I'll never be satisfied. I'll always want more! 

Derell Aton

(Future PGA Tour player)