We get so stuck and used to our daily routine as humans. There is a strange sense of security to it. Change and difference is seen as something threatening, something that breaks the easy flow of life. We go about things in a very unreflective manner. Many philosophers have commented on this state of mind. Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, and so many other philosophers write about this unreflective state of mind. Things work, and while they work we do not think about things, we merely “go with the flow” but all the whilst not being aware of the flowing.
In golf, this is no different. Golfers love to do the same thing over and over again. There is a kind of security to it. You find yourself always on the right side of the fairway because you are afraid of the water on the left. The tree always snatches your ball on that short hole, game after game. We usually pull out our three wood on the shorter par four, always preferring the same routine.
There is a security in the same routine that makes it really hard to escape its clutches.
This, however, should not always be the case. Whilst we can find security and comfort in the sameness, it does not help us grow. By getting out of the comfort zone, we can begin to grow, challenge ourselves, and see things from a different perspective.
I am travelling a lot between two different homes. This entails that I need to travel with my golf equipment, something I really do not like to do. I therefore left half my clubs at the one home and half my clubs at the other. In golf, you usually use 14 clubs. I now have seven at each residence. But I only have one driver. This complicates things, but it points to this radical openness to change that I want to highlight through golf.
This morning, I played some of the best golf I have played in years. I used fewer clubs, and different ones, ones I would never have used if I did not travel, if I stayed in that unreflective frame of mind. Because I changed my whole perspective, I saw the world anew, from a strange new place. It necessitated that I adapt to the new situation with new tools. But it also demanded me to see things differently and become familiar in the unfamiliar.
While some might not flourish in this heightened state of mind, others like myself might flourish in this newfound playground. Using the golf metaphor again, my golf ball ended up in places that I have never played from before. I was unfamiliar with every single shot. But rather than view this wholly negatively, I tried to see the positive in it. And in shifting my mind frame, reflecting on things and enjoying the unfamiliar, I was able to play some of the best golf I played in years.
Applying this in life, we might not always enjoy the unfamiliar and we might want to do things the same way every single day. Even though we might not like our routine, we remain firmly in the clutches of its familiarity. We complain about it, but once we get the opportunity to go beyond it, to step into unfamiliar, we recede back into familiar and nestle ourselves between what seems most homely.
Golf is a strange sport and it can sometimes help us think about how to change our ways to live better. Not everyone might agree nor would they get something from this metaphor. But it made me think when I played this strange little game.
All of the writings in this post are my own, albeit inspired by the game I played this morning. The photographs are also my own, taken with my iPhone.
