Hey Fellow Golfer - 

Thank you for reading this week’s More Pars Than Bogeys Newsletter. If you find it valuable, could you forward this email to a fellow golfer?

Thank you.

You can click here to read the online version of this week’s newsletter. 

And be sure to catch up on this week’s podcast episodes:

1. #34. [Journey to Scratch] Trying (Too) Hard to Break 90, A New Low, And A Reality Check

2. #35: [Inside the Mind] Jesse Perryman: Stop Trying So Hard and Play Better Golf

P.S. If you’re interested in learning more about how mindset coaching and hypnotherapy can help you get unstuck from the proverbial bunker of poor performance on the course and in your business, click here to schedule a coaching discovery call with me. 

The theme of many of the newsletters written to date has been the same: there are patterns of unconscious feeling, thinking, and behaving (destructive mindset programs) that happen beneath your level of conscious awareness.

Eventually, you do become aware of the misguided, outdated, and counterproductive manner of operating, yet, this often occurs too late.

A common example?

You start poorly with a few bad holes and let these feelings of frustration and disappointment hijack the steering wheel of your decision-making.

You berate yourself with each mediocre shot, curse (and blame) your putter, and let your mind drift to Instagram or only playing nine holes. 

This goes on unbeknownst to you until you make the turn and finally take a step away for a moment and can reset and refocus.

What if you could snap out of this funk before it even happened?

In today’s newsletter, you’ll learn how to quickly implement strategic interruption to snap-out of the unconscious programming plaguing your performance. 

You’ll learn why and how the brain priorities automation and efficiency in program design, as well as what you can begin doing more quickly - and effectively - begin shifting from unconscious reaction to conscious response. 

Let’s tee off!

When (and Why) A One-Time Behavior Becomes A Habit

Before we begin discussing why and how to use intentional interruptions to reclaim presence, focus, and control, you must understand how your brain builds patterns of feeling, thinking, and doing and why these patterns become so easy to default to - especially when under duress. 

To help you better understand the construction and design of your mind's intricate neural networks, imagine your brain as a vast landscape with neural pathways resembling roads.

When you start a new behavior (this applies to a feeling or thought, too), it's like carving a dirt path through this landscape. 

Imagine needing to walk the same 10-mile trek each day from your home to your place of work…

On the first day, you trudge through grassy fields, thickets, and rocky terrain while traversing various hills and valleys. Eventually, after consistently taking the same route, you notice that somewhat of a path emerges. It’s a bare, dirt path that has hardened and cleared with each passing day and step.

As you repeat the action, your brain reinforces this pathway, laying down neural connections akin to paving stones. In time, this path becomes more pronounced and easier to travel. You no longer need to traverse certain sections on all fours. 

After a specific period, the path becomes so clear that you get the idea (and appropriate resources) to pave it. What was once a long hike through uncharted terrain has now become a newly paved road, making it even easier to navigate.

As the routine behavior solidifies, your brain further develops this pathway, adding more lanes to accommodate increased traffic. Due to familiarity and repetition, the path to your destination is easier to recall and travel than ever before.

It no longer takes hours; now, it merely takes 10 minutes. 

This is how your brain works to increase efficiency and save energy. 

The more you feel, think, or behave in a certain way, the more your brain works to increase efficiency and ease of communication between neurons so that your brain can conserve energy and spend it elsewhere.

Under periods of stress, your brain defaults to the behavior or decisions that offer the path of least resistance.

Read that again. 

Eventually, this single one-way road evolves into a two-lane road, and, eventually, into a highway. When you’ve greased the groove of a pattern of feeling, thinking, or behavior to this extent, it happens unconsciously and automatically. 

Just as a 16-lane highway efficiently transports a high volume of traffic, your brain efficiently executes the habit with minimal conscious effort, making it an integral part of your daily routine. 

This is how negative emotions (which are pre-programmed responses), destructive thoughts, and sabotaging behaviors become a habit. 

Not only does it become easier to execute with each repetition, but it also becomes so familiar that it becomes a part of what your subconscious feels is safe and comfortable.

Crazy, right?

You Are What You Repeatedly Do

Your way of feeling, thinking, and behaving are habitual.

Performance anxiety and anger are both learned feeling states.

Ruminating on how bad of a golfer you are or how unfair the game (or course) is? Also a learned way of thinking.

Berating yourself after a mistake or poor shot, as well as cursing out your playing partner or throwing that club, too, are learned behaviors. 

Perhaps, most noteworthy of all is that playing to your potential is also a habit. More on that in a future newsletter. 

A trigger precedes each of these learned reactions. 

If you’re serious about taking your game to the next level, you need to become familiar with this topic, specifically, understanding how to dismantle the destructive mindset programs keeping you stuck in the proverbial bunker of poor performance. 

This is such an important concept to understand - only if you’re serious about improving- that I have a podcast episode about it, too. 

The only way to create an opportunity to consider a different feeling, thought, or behavior is by bringing it up from the depth of your unconscious and into conscious awareness.

This is where a pattern interrupt comes into play.

My client Greg came to me to help him release and learn to better manage anger and stress. These were holding him back from performing at his best in his marriage, business, and golf course.

Through out work thus far, Greg has been able to significantly turn down the dial of anger he experiences - becoming more consciously responsive versus unconsciously reactive.

The result? Better communication and quality time at home, more production and ease at the office, and, well, look at what’s been happening on the golf course…

Click here to schedule a free Mental Game Strategy session to learn how I can help you get out of your own way and shoot lower scores.

What Is A Pattern Interrupt

A pattern interrupt is a valuable tool for disrupting your usual feelings, thoughts, and actions, opening up space for new possibilities. 

This interruption is a crucial step in the change process, as it's easier to influence and redirect an unstable pattern than a rigid one.

When a pattern is completely interrupted, you're left momentarily without a clear next step, making you highly receptive to new directions. The unconscious mind, lacking the ability to make decisions, awaits instructions from the conscious mind or external sources.

This is where the power of the pattern interrupt lies. 

By sending the unconscious mind into a state of "decision-awaiting mode," you create an opportunity to insert new instructions into its programming.

A pattern interrupt is like a sudden stop on the highway - whether it be due to a deer in the road, a fallen tree, or a bad accident ahead - forcing you to pause and consciously consider your next move. 

It brings your next action (or lack thereof) into conscious awareness while temporarily quieting the unconscious, automated control.

In this moment of pause, you're presented with a choice - to continue with the familiar or to feel, think, or behave differently. Just as you might choose to take an earlier exit to avoid traffic caused by an accident, you can consciously decide to pursue a new path where new opportunities await.

Let’s discuss how to apply pattern interrupts on (and off) the course next.

If you’re serious about success - 

If you’re committed to achieving your full potential - 

You have a coach.

Period.

Whether on the golf course or in your business, asking for help accelerates results.

Click here to learn more about how hiring a mindset coach can 10X your speed of success on (and off) the course. 

How to Use A Pattern Interrupt

Before we discuss strategically interrupting an outdated or negative pattern, it’s important to note that this is a skill. 

Progress in skill development typically looks like this:

• Increased awareness of the pattern leads to beginning to identify it more often.
  

• In time, you begin to identify the pattern much sooner. For example, rather than having four consecutive poor holes, you snap yourself out of your “woah-is-me” funk after two and resume playing to your potential.
  

• In time, your awareness grows faster and stronger to the point that you recognize the pattern’s initial signs at its onset. For instance, you may feel the emotion in your body of hearing the first sentence of an outdated program after a poor shot, yet, be able to quickly let it go and redirect it before your next shot.
  

• Eventually, you have implemented this tool so consistently and effectively that it now becomes a habit. The result: you can play to your potential far more consistently…which also begins the process of becoming a habit.

Neat, right?!

To start harnessing the power of pattern interrupts, you first need to select your preferred method.  Here are a few examples that I've used and recommended to clients:

• Say "stop it!" aloud three times.

• Say "cancel, cancel" aloud three times.

• Jump up and down three times.

• Yell “ahhhh” aloud (seriously).

Remember that these should look and feel jarring. 

Yes, the should make you feel a bit uncomfortable. They’re designed to unhook you from your negative thought spiral and bring you back to the present moment. 

Try one or experiment with each.

The key is to use the interrupt as soon as you notice yourself heading down that familiar path. With practice, you'll catch yourself earlier and earlier, preventing the detrimental thought, feeling, or action from taking hold.

However, using a pattern interrupt is just the beginning. After interrupting the pattern, you must consciously choose a new thought, feeling, or behavior aligned with your desired outcome.

For example:

1. If you habitually berate yourself after a three-putt, you might say "stop it, stop it, stop it" aloud and then redirect your focus to taking three deep breaths and then stating an affirmation, such as “That wasn’t me. The confident putter within me will be present on the next hole.”
   

2. If you tend towards anger that manifests as immediate tension or heat in your body, you can jump up and down three times, then recite a positive affirmation like "It’s safe to make mistakes. Mistakes are learning lessons. I’m ready to make my next shot my best shot."
   

3. If you find yourself mindlessly scrolling on social media, yelling "cancel, cancel, cancel" and tossing your phone aside, then do five jumping jacks to shift your focus and energy.

By practicing these interruptions and consciously choosing positive alternatives, you'll gradually unlearn old habits and cultivate new, healthier ones.

Through techniques like hypnosis and Mindset and Performance Coaching, I can assist you in constructing a detour from your usual path of negative habits. This involves temporarily blocking access to these habits, akin to placing orange traffic cones on a highway.

From there, we collaborate to forge a new path forward, aligning your thoughts, feelings, and self-talk with your desired self. With hypnosis, we expedite the creation of this new path, which, with consistent reinforcement, evolves into a robust neural network - a 16-lane highway - forged by your present-day intentions and alignment.

Hypnotherapy acts as the mechanism for setting up these detours, temporarily halting access to old patterns. Each hypnosis session rapidly reinforces and deepens this new pathway until it becomes a dominant, self-created neural highway.

As a Golf Hypnotherapist, I use hypnosis to unlearn and upgrade outdated, habitual ways of feeling, thinking, and behaving that are holding you back from your potential.

Click here to schedule a free Mental Game Strategy session to learn how I can help you make playing to your potential a habit. 

Your Next Step

Every newsletter will conclude with a suggested action step and further resources on the topic we discussed.

After reading today’s newsletter, commit to one specific pattern interrupt technique I shared and try it on for size for seven days in a row. 

Thank you for reading today’s newsletter.

If you found it valuable, share it with a fellow golfer ready to take their game to the next level.

Until next time,

Paul

P.S. What did you think of today’s newsletter? Reply back / drop a comment below to let me know.

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Thank you for reading.

When you're ready, there are three ways I can help you:

1. Listen to The Scratch Golfer’s Mindset Podcast: Whether you’re an occasional amateur, a weekend regular, or a competitor seeking a tournament trophy or your pro card, this podcast will help you overcome the mental hazards of your mind to shoot more pars than bogeys. Start listening.
   

2. Download My “Play Your Best Round” Hypnosis Audio Recording: How Hypnosis Can Help You Shoot Lower Scores: Whether you spend two or ten hours at the range each week, if you don’t learn to address and overcome your mind's mental and emotional hazards, you’ll remain stuck in the proverbial bunker of poor performance playing well short of your potential. Shoot More Pars.
   

3. 1-1 Mindset Coaching and Hypnotherapy for Golfers: I help golfers overcome the emotional and mental hazards of their minds to shoot lower scores (and have more fun) using hypnosis. Book a free Golf Mental Game Strategy Call Today.