Being true to yourself, both on and off the golf course, involves living in alignment with your values, passions, and beliefs, while respecting your personal boundaries and needs. In golf, this means playing with integrity, adhering to the rules, and embracing the spirit of sportsmanship. Off the golf course, being authentic encompasses being honest with yourself and others, pursuing your passions, and fostering genuine connections. These are essential aspect of living a fulfilling and purpose-driven life where you don’t feel dead on the inside. If you’ve never felt hollow, I LOVE that for you.
In your efforts to be a more empowering golfer/human in general on and off the green, here are some notes to consider around authenticity:
The game always knows the score.
Authenticity and integrity merge with a sea of anti-social, violent geese and salmon-colored Bermuda shorts to form the scaffolding that surrounds the game of golf. Opportunities to convey honesty, transparency, consistency, and a willingness to be true to oneself and one’s values present themselves regularly. The complexities of golf and its lengthy pace of play make it a sport that doesn’t lie. The game always knows the real score and I’m guessing you feel you have a pretty good read on people you spend 4+ hours with too.
Being true to yourself is not cart path only.
The cart path-only rule is designed to protect courses from significant damage. It serves a vital purpose that happens to limit players’ freedom to move on the course. A necessary sacrifice to maintain course quality and to prevent your shoesies from getting all muddied up.
In life, observed that there are times where staying on an otherwise appealing path at the expense of authenticity is significantly more damaging and difficult than trudging through the mud.
In times that require you to find your own way forward in the name of integrity, self-love, and confidence, please remember to grant yourself grace and explicit permission to honor your whole self. I especially if doing so requires deviating from the steady [life/career/relationship/whatever] path you’re on in the interest of maintaining integrity or in being authentically yourself. Do it – rain or shine. Sure, life’s muddy out there in the wide-open air. But it’s open-er there, too. Embracing this fluidity opened the door for greater self-awareness, adaptability, and resilience along with SO MUCH JOY.
Put your mask on first.
Authenticity is the cornerstone of trust, both in yourself and in your relationships with others. I don’t need to explain this though. Mr. Finney covered that base. For you as a current/future #1 fan, choosing to be decidedly genuine with yourself and others created opportunities for meaningful experiences and connections that align with your real deal self. Avoid exaggerating or fabricating your feelings for the sake of impressing or flattering others. You’re probably bad at it.
While it’s essential to be adaptable and considerate of others’ feelings and opinions, don’t compromise living your truth. Striving to maintain a balance between honoring your needs and adjusting to different situations demands tact, certainly, but if you don’t believe it, don’t say it. It’s simple.
One final note – Times when it’s okay to be a Bandwagon Betty:
Regarding sports – it’s okay to fall off literally whenever. Your primary responsibility is to your wellbeing and your commitment to living authentically means making choices that contribute to your happiness and personal growth (even if it means appearing as a bandwagon fan to others). You want to drop $5k on a new team’s gear every few years because your former favorite just isn’t engaging anymore? Go for it. Is this disloyal? By definition, yes. Is it also wildly inconsequential? Definitely yes. Tell your friends from the outskirts of Boston who are giving you trouble about this to scram.
Until next week,
