When You Are In, Get Out!

Golf is a challenging game. So challenging that it can, for many, hardly be considered a game. Darrell Royal, the legendary coach of the Texas Longhorn Football team once said something to the effect that, squaring the golf club face to the ball at the point of impact, while executing a golf swing is one of the most difficult athletic skills to master. There are not many golfers that would disagree!

One of the unwritten tips to enjoying golf is that when you are in trouble the immediate and only objective must be to get out of trouble. Golf courses are designed to make the game challenging and that is why there are so many trouble spots on the course. These troubles consist of; sand, trees, bushes, water, hills and on some courses, railroad ties! These troubles are easy to get into and can be very tough to get out of. But you simply must get out. The simple solution is often the best solution. 

So when you hit a bad shot and find yourself in trouble, get out of trouble. Many amateur golfers stand over a golf ball that is deep in trouble and imagine that they can hit a shot that the professionals would never attempt. They select the wrong club, take a stand and swing away. The result is predictable and they find themselves in more trouble than they there were in prior to the risky shot. 

When you are in trouble, your only immediate focus should be to simply and quickly get out of trouble. Learning to get out of trouble can be a tough lesson to learn and master. Mistakes in business and life happen and it is far less important why it happened and who is at fault than it is to get things headed back in the right direction. Once you have handled the initial issue that caused the trouble,  you can move on to causes and find out who and why. But discovering who and why is not nearly as important as quickly defusing the situation. Even if you have to take ownership of trouble you did not create, the aggrieved will value your efforts to make their life better by confronting and when appropriate, handling the issue yourself. 

So when you are in, get out!