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 episode:

• #125: How to Summit the Mountain of Success

• #126: [Inside the Mind] Derek Belch (CEO of Strivr and Stanford Kicker): Visualization on Steroids, Decision-Making Under Pressure, and the Psychology of High-Stakes Performance

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 (and off) the course, click here to schedule a coaching discovery call with me. 

***

Let me paint you a picture…

You’re standing at the base of a mountain on a clear day. No fog. No mystery. No confusion.

You can see the trail. You can see the summit. You can see exactly where you’re headed.

• That summit represents the next level of your life.

• The golfer you know you’re capable of being.

• The business owner with more income, more freedom, and more peace.

• The version of you that finally feels aligned instead of constantly fighting yourself.

There’s nothing unclear about what to do. You’ve studied the map. You’ve watched others take this exact path. You know where to go and how to get there.

And yet, as you begin the climb, something feels off.

Every step feels heavier than it should.

Progress feels slower than it should.

The climb feels far more exhausting than it has any right to be.

• Not because you’re incapable.

• Not because you lack discipline.

• Not because you don’t want the summit badly enough.

But because you’re attempting to climb this mountain with a backpack filled with heavy rocks.

Those rocks are invisible—but they’re very real.

Each one represents an old belief.

An unresolved fear.

Pressure to get to the top the right way and in the right amount of time.

Fear of judgment. Fear of falling short. Fear of success itself.

And here’s the dangerous part.

The higher you climb, the heavier the pack becomes.

Eventually, even though you can still see the summit, it starts to feel further away than ever before. And when that happens, your mind does exactly what it’s programmed to do—it looks for relief.

That’s when self-sabotage quietly enters the picture.

Disguised as logic.

• You convince yourself to take a different trail.

• You decide now isn’t the right time to start.

• You get close to the top… and turn around.

You slow your pace because you’re watching others sprint past you with different gear, different conditioning, different timelines.

And eventually, you begin questioning whether the mountain is even worth climbing at all…

Not because you don’t want the summit.

But because carrying the weight you have in your pack has made the climb feel unbearable.

If you’re picking up what I’m putting down, this newsletter is for you.

In today’s newsletter, you’ll learn…

• Why self-sabotage shows up when you’re closest to breakthrough

• What the “backpack of rocks” actually represents in golf, business, and life

• How Destructive Mindset Programs quietly pull you back just as momentum builds

• Why emotional fog makes even a clear path feel impossible to navigate

• What it actually takes to take the pack off—and finally experience sustainable success

Now let’s break this mountain down—because the problem was never the trail, and it was never your ability.

It’s the weight you’ve been carrying the entire time.

Let’s tee off!

When the Path is Clear but the Climb Feels Heavy

Most of you reading this aren’t beginners.

You’re not lost.

You know the basics. You’ve read the books, watched the videos, taken the lessons, and invested in the gear. 

You’ve had enough rounds to know the difference between a bad swing and a bad decision—and you’ve had enough life experience to know the difference between being busy and being effective.

That’s what makes this stage so infuriating.

Because at this level, the obstacle isn’t ignorance.

It’s friction.

It’s the feeling of:

• “I’m doing so much… why do I still feel behind?”

• “I’m practicing… why does it not show up under pressure?”

• “My business is growing… why do I feel more anxious, not more free?”

• “I’m getting better… why do I keep having the same breakdowns?”

This is what I call the clear path / heavy climb problem.

You can see exactly what to do.

And yet the doing feels heavier than it should.

Here’s the shift I want you to consider: When the plan is clear but the execution is inconsistent, you don’t have a strategy problem.

You have a self-protection problem.

The Backpack You’re Unaware of that You’re Carrying

The biggest lie high performers believe is this: “If I just want it bad enough, I’ll do it.”

That’s partially true. Wanting it matters.

But what matters more is what you’re carrying while you pursue it.

Most golfers and entrepreneurs are walking around with an invisible backpack filled with rocks like:

Fear of judgment

• Golf: “Don’t embarrass yourself in front of better players.”

• Business: “Don’t look stupid asking for help or making a bold move.”

This fear makes you play and live carefully.

Pressure to justify your investment

• Golf: “I’ve spent too much money on lessons to still shoot 88.”

• Business: “I’ve invested too much time to still feel uncertain.”

Pressure creates tightness. Tightness creates forced decisions.

Emotional residue from past failures

• Golf: The double on 16 last month that ruined your best round of the year.

• Business: The deal that fell through, the launch that flopped, the client that burned you.

Your body remembers these moments. You may not consciously think about them… but your nervous system does.

The need to prove something

This one is sneaky because it looks like motivation.

But it’s actually a trap.

• It turns golf into identity.

• It turns business into a referendum on your worth.

• It turns every setback into a personal indictment.

And when you play or work with something to prove, you don’t just want to win.

You need to win.

That need creates heaviness.

If you’re serious about taking your business and self to the next level, click here to schedule a Mindset Coaching Discovery Call to learn how I can help you achieve your potential and scale both your impact and income.

Why the Summit Starts to Feel Further Away (Even When You’re Closer Than Ever)

This is where your brain does something that seems insane—until you understand it.

When you get close to a new level, you enter unfamiliar territory. And unfamiliar—no matter how positive—is interpreted by your nervous system as risk.

So as you approach the summit:

• Your mind scans for danger.

• Your body increases tension.

• Your attention narrows to outcomes.

• Your patience decreases.

• Your emotional reactivity increases.

This is why so many golfers don’t blow up on hole two. They blow up on hole 15… when they realize they might actually shoot their best score.

It’s why entrepreneurs don’t sabotage themselves at $5,000 months. They sabotage themselves when the business starts flirting with $50,000 months.

Because now there’s something at stake:

• Expectations

• Responsibility

• Visibility

• Identity shift

And that’s where your protective programming activates.

Self-Sabotage Doesn’t Look Like Quitting—It Looks Like “Reasonable”

Self-sabotage almost never shows up as, “I’m going to ruin this.”

It shows up as plausible logic.

Golf examples you’ll recognize:

• You stop committing to your target and start aiming “away from trouble”

• You speed up your routine because you don’t want attention

• You choose the safe club… even when it doesn’t fit the shot

• You start steering because you’re afraid of the big miss

• You get irritated by tiny mistakes because you’re emotionally overloaded

Business/life examples:

• You “research” for two more weeks because you want to be sure

• You avoid a difficult conversation because it might create conflict

• You lower your price because it feels safer than holding your ground

• You stop doing the uncomfortable actions that created momentum

• You rationalize comfort as “balance” when it’s actually avoidance

None of these are catastrophic alone, but together, they create the classic pattern: Two steps forward. Three steps back.

Feel familiar?

If you’re serious about taking your game to the next level - on and off the course - click here to schedule a Mindset Coaching Discovery Call to learn how I can help you make playing to your potential a habit. 

Destructive Mindset Programs: The System Behind the Sabotage

Your self-sabotage isn’t random.

It’s patterned.

It’s a program.

A Destructive Mindset Program is an unconscious sequence that runs like this:

Trigger → Emotion → Belief → Behavior → Result → Identity

Let me make this painfully practical.

Example: Golf

• Trigger: You realize you’re on pace to shoot 82.

• Emotion: Anxiety.

• Belief: “Don’t screw this up.”

• Behavior: You guide the swing, rush decisions, play tight.

• Result: Bogey-double-bogey.

• Identity: “I always fall apart when it matters.”

Example: Business

• Trigger: A big opportunity shows up—new client, new partnership, bigger stage.

• Emotion: Pressure and fear.

• Belief: “I’m not ready for this.”

• Behavior: Delay, perfectionism, avoidance, overthinking.

• Result: Missed opportunity.

• Identity: “I can’t break through this level.”

The program’s purpose is not to harm you.

It’s to protect you from emotional risk.

The problem is that protection and progress rarely coexist.

Work with a golf hypnotherapist and mindset coach to unlearn the beliefs, programs, and behaviors that are no longer serving you so that you can play to your potential. 

Click here to schedule a Mindset Coaching Discovery Call to learn how I can help you make playing to your potential a habit. 

The Emotional Fog That Makes Everything Harder Than It Needs To Be

Here’s the part most men hate admitting: You can’t outwork emotional weight.

If you’re carrying chronic:

• anxiety

• stress

• anger

• resentment

• shame

• grief

• overwhelm

You are walking around with mental fog.

And fog does three devastating things:

1. It destroys clarity: You can’t make clean decisions when you’re emotionally loaded.

2. It drains energy: You might be physically fine—but mentally depleted by 2 p.m. That’s when you start making sloppy choices on the course and in life.

3. It undermines self-trust: You start questioning everything:

• your swing

• your strategy

• your plan

• your leadership

• your ability

That’s why a single bad hole can hijack an entire round.

That’s why a single hard week can make you question your entire business.

This is also why “mental game tips” only take you so far.

If the emotional fog is thick, tips bounce off.

Taking the Backpack Off: What This Actually Requires

This is where most people want a tactic.

And yes—tactics help.

But tactics are not the solution when the problem is identity-level.

Taking the backpack off requires three things:

1. Awareness: You can’t change what you’re not aware of.

You must learn to see:

• your triggers

• your default emotions

• your patterns of reaction

2. Pause: The difference between reaction and response is a pause. That pause creates autonomy.

3. Rewiring: Not muscling through it. Not “being more disciplined.” Actually dismantling the beliefs and emotional triggers that create the pattern in the first place.

That’s why I use hypnosis to uncover and unlearn the toxic patterns of thinking, believing, and behaving holding you back. 

Because the goal isn’t for you to hype yourself up.

It’s for you to stop needing hype to be steady.

Final Thought

If you’ve felt stuck despite effort, it’s not because you’re weak.

It’s because you’re climbing with weight you’ve never been taught to remove.

• You don’t need a new trail.

• You don’t need more information.

• You don’t need another swing thought.

You need to get honest about what’s in your pack—and finally do the work of taking it off.

Because when you do?

• The climb becomes quieter.

• Your decisions become cleaner.

• Your confidence becomes steadier.

• Your performance becomes repeatable.

On the course.

In business.

At home.

And that summit you’ve been staring at for years?

It stops feeling like a fantasy.

It becomes inevitable.

I’d love to help you.

As a mindset and performance coach for high-achievers, I use hypnosis and other subconscious reprogramming strategies to help my clients… 

• Reset their identity thermostat

• Build unshakable confidence

• Make playing to their potential a habit

If you’re serious about making this your true Separation Season, click here to schedule a Mindset Coaching Discovery Call and let’s talk about how we can build the golfer—and the man—you know you’re capable of becoming.

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, identify where you’re most prne to stopping your summit and get curious and clear as to why…

If you have any questions, feel free to DM me on Instagram (@thegolfhypnotherapist) or send me an email directly: [email protected]

After reading today’s newsletter, I want you to take the time to complete each step in my goal-setting process. Then, share it with me via email or on social media.

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.

• Birdie

• Par

• Bogey

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: Let me help you lock in the level of focus, confidence, and clarity you need to create the mindset necessary to make your next round your best round. Download Your Free Hypnosis Audio.
   

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.