This afternoon my daughter and I attended the Nationwide Children’s Championship golf tournament here in Columbus. Its being contested on our home golf course – The Ohio State University Golf Club’s Scarlet Course which is always a challenge to the best players in golf’s AAA division.

web-com-tourThe participants in the tournament are attempting to earn a spot on the actual PGA Tour in 2015 as part of the Web.com playoff stretch. The course, which serves as the home course for the OSU Men’s & Women’s teams is considered one of the top collegiate courses in the country and is annually set up as one of the toughest the Web.com players will face each year. It’s certainly “worthy” of a spot in the playoffs and seeks to identify the best golfers in the world.

No Favoritism Here

Unlike major college sports, the golfers who make it to the PGA Tour each year truly have to earn their spots. There’s no bi-partisan voting and league support, there is no campaigning for votes and there will never be a way for competitors to schedule around the best competition.

If the PGA Tour’s slogan is “These Guys Are Good,” then the Web.com should consider a slogan of “Pretty Good but Not Good Enough…yet!” Not every shot is as clean as it needs to be. Not every ball is hit in the sweet spot of the club. Not every putt lands squarely in the center of the hole.

Here’s the important thing to realize. That’s okay!

They don’t need to be great every day. they just need to be better than the next guy each week. They aren’t trying to achieve perfection. they just want to be as close to their best as they can each shot, each round, each day. If they are good enough to earn a spot in “the show,” they’ll take it but, if they fall short, my guess is they’ll hit the driving range when the season ends and start working harder for next year’s opportunity. Any of these guys are just one great swing away from stardom.

The next time they hit a bad shot, make a bad swing or miss a putt, these guys just need to pause for a half of a second and remind themselves they are still better than 99% of the golfing public…IN THE WORLD!!!

What’s Your Level of Expectation?

I’m pretty sure that every golfer that teed off on Thursday was hoping to hoist the trophy that goes with winning the Nationwide Children’s Championship but now that the weekend cut has been made, players expectations have changed. The ones that aren’t going to be playing this weekend have to go back to the proverbial “drawing board” and start getting ready for their next competitive round. The players who are still in the tournament need to get re-focused for their next shot in round #3.

Will the leader be happy just maintaining the lead or should he be looking to widen the gap between himself and the nearest competitors? Should he spend the night figuring out a way to take his foot off the gas and not bring any risk into the possible reward? Or if they are  the far end of the playing field, virtually out of contention, should they just play out the last 2 rounds like a robot or should they show up for the next round and ask themselves, “Why not me?”

Pretty Good But…

So you closed X transactions this year? That’s pretty good…but someone else has done X +1.

When you’re spending time maintaining your business, the players in the level above you are focused on how they can grow their business.

Pretty proud of the fact that you prospected for new business this week and secured 3 appointments? The person who scheduled 5 this week would laugh at you…if they had time.

I remember one time at one of our national conventions I was enjoying lunch with a very successful Realtor from another part of the country. I told him I had closed 50 units the year before. He smile and said, “That’s pretty good bit what did you do on the other 315 days of the year?” Boom! That’s called #Perspective. My “busy” is someone else’s “active.” Your “difficult” is someone else’s “easy.”

Weekend Golfers Are Jealous

This weekend over a million people will tee off around the country. Very few of them have any aspirations to play as a professional but those that do should know what effort and dedication it might take. Also this weekend, close to a million members of the National Association of Realtors will do something to further their career as a Realtor yet few will really have an understanding of the effort and dedication it might take.

Strive to build relationships, solve problems and have fun.

Remember, you might be pretty good now but…you could always become better.

 

Photo via: PGATour.com