"Twenty minutes ago, this was the best day of my life..."

This morning I had an opportunity to go golfing with my father-in-law and brother-in-law. We were playing at Sleepy Ridge and after finishing the sixth hole, my brother-in-law (who, as you might have guessed, wasn't having the best day ever) turned to me and said, "Twenty minutes ago, this was the best day of my life. Now, it is the worst day of my life!" Anyone who is familiar with golfing knows that this phrase, or something similar, is not uncommon on the golf course. In fact, chances are that some of you reading this post are probably replaying some of those "worst days" over in your mind. Hopefully they are accompanied by a little chuckle and a shake of the head. The more I thought about this, the more I realized that maybe there were some hidden lessons in what Jonathan said today on the course.

First, I am completely confident that moments like these are not the end of the world. If they were, then I am pretty sure that the world would have ended with the first golfers! :) There are times in our lives when we feel like saying, "Yesterday was the best day of my life, but today. . . ." "Last week was the best week of my life. . . ." "Last year. . ." etc. The truth of the matter is, although the last "twenty minutes" have been pretty good, they will eventually lead to the not-so-good twenty minutes. It is during the bad times that we need to remember the good times and allow those to carry us through. And, with any luck, the slumps will only last "twenty minutes."

Secondly, I couldn't help but notice that the bad times often have a destructive effect on everything else around us. While golfing, I know if I hit a goofy shot, the next time I pull out the culprit club, my mind plays some bad tricks. I can't help but think: "I want to hit anything BUT the last shot that I hit." or "Anything other than _______ would be a 'good' outcome." The funny thing is that there is something like a 90% probability that I am going to hit the exact shot that I don't want to hit! And when that happens, all of a sudden, my bad twenty minutes turns into thirty or forty. The same happens in our day-to-day life. We start thinking that any kind of situation besides our current situation would be much better than what we are facing today. We try to avoid, to prolong, to whatever the current situation so we don't have to face what we think lies ahead. However, I can't help but think that if we take the bad situations we have and learn to accept them for what they are, we will find that our bad "twenty minutes" turns into ten. We begin to realize they weren't as bad as we thought. I mean, that's how Tiger Woods does it, right? He hits a bad shot, accepts the outcome, and goes on to win the tournament.

So, to my brother-in-law and all you other "twenty-minute" sufferers, I have learned that if you can keep your head up, accept the situation, and don't let the bad minutes dictate the new minutes ahead, you will keep going back to the golf course!