Awareness
My life lessons usually sneak up on me when I least expect them. Several years ago on a Sunday morning in Austin, I was listening to Mike Adams, then the head of the Academy of Golf, talking about how and why we criticize ourselves so harshly for any mistakes we might make. That applies to golf and lots of other areas of my life for sure.
Mike said that we were trained that way from the time that we are little kids in school. The teachers always seemed to point out the two items that we had misspelled, not the 98 that we got right. Mike went on to say that the same scenario continues thru our lives in school, college, and into our work and play. (It happens for example, in performance reviews, relationships, and even in golf.) It becomes so ingrained that we even begin to talk to ourselves when we make a mistake. The psychologists call that "self talk." My wise friend Nancy told me that it is our VOJ or Voice of Judgement. (An example of that self talk is, "Oops, I missed that one." or "Dummy!, what's wrong? Can't you even play this game?") There are lots of successful coaches, psychiatrists, counsellors and hundreds of self help books on how to overcome this self talk and judgement.
Charlie Savino, a friend and former colleague at the Greater Houston Partnership, used to get upset with me when he handed me a draft paper or letter and I immediately saw the typos even before I read the content. (I can't really help myself. It is the result of years of writing and editing everything from proposals, contracts, blogs and letters.) I know that several of you also have "typomania" yourselves.
Do you, like me, look for typos, widows and missed words online too?
You might ask, "What's the point?" The point is this. Be aware of what you are doing, know that you have been trained to do it and then do something about it. Now that I am aware, I am trying to change my "typomania" and my self talk. Who knows, it might even help my golf swing. (Probably not.)
JK
Mike said that we were trained that way from the time that we are little kids in school. The teachers always seemed to point out the two items that we had misspelled, not the 98 that we got right. Mike went on to say that the same scenario continues thru our lives in school, college, and into our work and play. (It happens for example, in performance reviews, relationships, and even in golf.) It becomes so ingrained that we even begin to talk to ourselves when we make a mistake. The psychologists call that "self talk." My wise friend Nancy told me that it is our VOJ or Voice of Judgement. (An example of that self talk is, "Oops, I missed that one." or "Dummy!, what's wrong? Can't you even play this game?") There are lots of successful coaches, psychiatrists, counsellors and hundreds of self help books on how to overcome this self talk and judgement.
Charlie Savino, a friend and former colleague at the Greater Houston Partnership, used to get upset with me when he handed me a draft paper or letter and I immediately saw the typos even before I read the content. (I can't really help myself. It is the result of years of writing and editing everything from proposals, contracts, blogs and letters.) I know that several of you also have "typomania" yourselves.
Do you, like me, look for typos, widows and missed words online too?
You might ask, "What's the point?" The point is this. Be aware of what you are doing, know that you have been trained to do it and then do something about it. Now that I am aware, I am trying to change my "typomania" and my self talk. Who knows, it might even help my golf swing. (Probably not.)
JK