Think Good, Play Good

I used to live by the phrase, “look good, feel good, play good,” when I was an athlete WAY back when. It was fairly true, the better I felt, the more confidence I had and the better the result was on the field. Well, I came out of athletic retirement a few years back and picked up a golf club for the first time.

I didn’t look good out there, so that old-age phrase was irrelevant to me. I went with the “think good, play good” mindset instead.

If you read the welcome letter to this newsletter, you know golf is my biggest obsession in life. Honestly, I am really writing this article to convince myself that spending thousands of dollars on gear and rounds plus hundreds of hours playing each year is actually worth it. Cause it’s not… but here we go!

Don’t worry if you don’t care for golf, this post comes back around to the world of business and life in general. Stay with me.

My thesis: A positive mindset is often the key to success, while negative self-talk can hold you back.

Think Good, Play Good

I get nervous when I go out to play a round of 18 holes. I am an extremely competitive dude and want to smash my PR shooting the lowest score possible every time I go out there. For anyone who hasn’t hit a golf ball before, it’s really damn hard. It’s easy to have a million swing thoughts when standing over a golf ball. It’s important to try and simplify the process and remain positive.

I slice the ball quite often, meaning my ball flight pulls a hard right turn in the middle of the air screaming towards the out of bounds marker. This is not a brag. Golf shots are supposed to go straight. Try it before you keep judging.

Anyways, my slice really comes out the hardest when I am thinking, “please Danny, don’t be a fricken’ idiot and slice this little white ball into the woods”. I soon started to realize when I flipped that mindset and say to myself, “dude you’re gonna f****** smash this thing 300 yards down the middle of the fairway”, the slice would go away.

It’s impossible to walk up to the ball every time and have that John Daly type of swing thought given it’s such a rollercoaster of a game, but the more often you think a positive result is going to occur, I guarantee it’ll start to happen.

The literal example of this mindset on the golf course in real life is a young fellow by the name of the “DOD King”. DOD stands for “Driver Off the Deck”, which means hitting a driver without a tee, a move that is not advised by any golf pro on planet earth. His handle is literally @delusionallyconfident on Instagram, speaking his confident into existence.

You don’t have to be as extreme and delusional as the DOD King, but simply just stay positive.

When I finally taught myself this mindset on the golf course and saw positive changes, I realized it applied to many different aspects of my life.

Never once has anyone gone into a job interview scared to death thinking there was no way they were getting the job and actually got an offer. Somone who is prepared and confident saying, “this is job is mine for the taking”, leaves with their dream job.

Never once has anyone been tasked to present a meaningful project to their boss, gone into the assignment with a lack of confidence and performed well. The employee who leaves that room with a raise is the one that went into the project thinking they were Albert Einstein mixed with the charisma of Brad Pitt.

Practice and preparation are the two most important things you could possibly do to help you get over a constant pessimistic outlook. The more you do things, the more you will be comfortable in those situations. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. The old cliché “practice makes perfect”, may not always apply. Perfection is hard to obtain, but practice can make you comfortable and confident.

I was scared shitless for my in-person interview with Dana White at the UFC HQ out in Las Vegas. That being said, I’d like to think it the best interview I had ever done. How so?

Because even though I was beyond nervous to chat with The Boss man himself, I prepared my ass off for the interview with some intense research, practicing with friends and in mirrors, and knew I was ready. It was the first in-person interview I had ever done, and it was with DANA FRICKEN WHITE. Before walking into that UFC HQ conference room with photos of Muhammad Ali all over the walls, I didn’t think about all that could go wrong, such as Dana walking out on me for being a terrible podcaster, RIP Howie Mandel. I thought about how epic the experience was going to be. I remembered the effort I put into preparing for the conversation and I God damn nailed it.

I am not saying having a positive outlook on things will always lead to success, but overtime it’ll get you closer to where you want to be. Nobody wants to be around a negative Nancy. Don’t make yourself one.

Your Dream Girl

Picture this: You’re sitting at the bar, and the girl of your dreams just walked in. Super curious the type of lady that popped into all of your heads just now. You want nothing more than her number so you can invite her to your local Olive Garden for all you can eat breadsticks. But in your mind, you’re thinking, “she’d never go for me, I’m a loser”.

No dude, SHUT UP! You need to say, “I’m gonna smash this thing 300 yards down the middle of the fairway”. You will NEVER get the girl’s digits thinking that you aren’t good enough. Call yourself a savage, go put a dollar in the Jukebox, turn on a Tom Petty classic, grab a Vodka soda with a splash of raspberry for the lady of your dreams and be on your way to those glorious breadsticks.

Flip the Mindset

Out on the golf course, when I used to see a water hazard in front of the green and I need hit the ball 175 yards to cover it, I used to think, “Well, it was nice knowing ya ball!”, every single time. And SPLASH. I need to go spend another $22.99 on a sleeve of Pro V1s.

I’ve flipped the mindset to, “this ball is going to fly 180 and land on the putting surface”. Did I stop losing balls? Of course not, BUT the game is beginning to improve and that’s mainly due to the positive self-talk (and my new $329 Stealth 3-Wood, thing is so awesome).

If you learned anything from this article, go buy a new driver and your golf game will be fixed.

Kidding, just instead of going into challenging situations with a pre-determined result that is often negative, open up the mind and do your best to latch onto positivity. Even if it doesn’t get you where you want, the journey will be a lot more fun.

Writing on a more personal level is new and scary to me as writing a sports recap newsletter was a much different type of style. BUT I am not going into this Danny’s Diary project with the mindset it’s going to suck. I’ve got an open mind on what this process will be like and picturing myself sitting on a private island in the Bahamas when I have 63 million subscribers because everyone loves the content. THINK GOOD, PLAY GOOD!

In honor of the Tom Brady Roast, destroy me…

Next week I am going to talk about my putting stroke. I kid, I kid! Stay tuned for a detailed journey on how I was to garner Dana White’s attention, win his trust and interview him at UFC HQ in Las Vegas. Or how my parents are actually a lot smarter than I gave them credit for. Or the power of networking. Haven’t decided yet.

See you next week!

Yours truly,

Danny Healey