View this article in a printable PDF format. Noel Rousseau contact card. If you do not have a PDF viewer you can download one here.

Have you ever finished your round and afterwards when someone has asked you for your score you gave them the whole story with all the highlights and reasons why the score is the way it is but never actually told them what was on your scorecard?

Well here’s the thing, all those reasons are totally valid and make a lot of sense but are otherwise called excuses. Golfers come up with all kinds of reasons why the score doesn’t add up and they are always down to an outside agency or just plain bad luck.

“Bad luck” by definition is completely out of our control

In general luck is only how we choose to perceive a situation and the label we give to stuff we don’t wish to face up to. The problem with perceiving a situation as “bad luck” is that by definition it is completely out of our control. When you play great but score high because of luck then how do we improve and who’s to say it won’t happen again? That to me is a pretty helpless place to be…..

The concept I introduce to all my players is very simple and will empower anyone that chooses to adopt it. It is the equation of cause and effect.

Are you a person who causes things to happen or are you at the effect of other circumstances?

A player at “Effect” will always have reasons for things not being the way they want; they are the whingers and excuse makers. By nature this player will always be at the effect of outside circumstances.

The golfer at “Cause” knows that in some way everything is down to their own making. This player takes absolute responsibility and from this position they are in control of their own world.

This may seem harsh and we know that some things in golf you can’t control, but please remember that this is not real, it is just a model and if you want to develop a winning mindset you must take responsibility for your results.

Here are several situations presented with the perception of being both at cause and effect. There are also some common gripes that you may want to convert into a more useful perception.