Sometimes, I just don’t want to. Some days, I just want to stay in bed.
The world seems to be getting more and more like that these days. It feels like less and less of us Earth-dwellers have the motivation to keep moving forward. Every new day brings a new challenge and it gets harder and harder to succeed.
Now, whether the deck is actually stacked against us or someone left obstacles for us to overcome, is up for debate, but I’ll keep that out of this forum. Either way, it sure seems that life is like a golf course.
An architect builds a golf course. A player plays a golf course. The architect builds potential pitfalls and hazards throughout the course. A player tries to negotiate their way through those pitfalls and hazards.
There’s good places to be on a golf course and there’s bad places to be. Sometimes, the good places end up being bad and the bad places turn out to be good. No one really knows until they’re there.
When it all comes down to it though, we have to choose the path we take. Then, we have to take it. (Wait, you mean I have to actually physically do something?)
It’s easy to see why a person wouldn’t be able to get past the first tee. Same reason people never pursue their dreams in life.
It’s difficult. It’s scary. People freeze up before they even take a step. Humans have an extraordinary power and, yet also a fatal flaw. We can “see” those pitfalls and hazards before they happen.
Sometimes, we give those hazards more credence then they deserve. Sometimes, we don’t give them enough. Sometimes, we imagine more than are actually there.
On a golf course, we can discuss how to negotiate these hazards with our caddie. A caddie is someone who’s professionally trained to help you navigate a certain golf course. Off the golf course, discussing those “life hazards” usually falls on our family and friends, who may not be professionally trained.
Ultimately though, it’s ourselves, individually, who have to do the navigating. We can discuss it all we want, but no one else can take the wheel, and that’s terrifying.
In golf terms, you have to “golf your ball.” You can talk about your next shot with forty people and hem and haw ’til the cows come home, but at the end of the day, you’re the one who has to hit that ball. No one else can do it for you.
You’ve got to get up, step up and make that final decision about where to go. You’ve got to address that ball and execute that shot. You’ve got to swing the club. Then, you’ve got to go find that ball, no matter where it ended up and do it all over again.
You’ve got to ride the roller coaster, feel the ups and downs. You’ve got to take your lumps and get back up again.
Eventually, that ball is going to find it’s way into the hole. Sometimes, you might even surprise yourself.
You just gotta keep swinging until you’re a part of the whole damn thing.