"Old Mo"

I often hear sports announcers refer to momentum as "old mo". They talk about changes in momentum in a game. One team seems to have all the momentum on their side, then suddenly something changes and "old mo" seems to change sides.

The scientific definition of momentum is that is the power residing in an object. The mathematical formula for momentum is mass times velocity.

We all experience times in our lives where we seem to have all the momentum. "Old mo" seems to be on our side. Things are a lot easier when we have momentum on our side. The problem are those times where we seem to lose momentum. Once lost, it seems hard to regain.

If we apply the scientific formula for momentum, then it might be easier to regain. We have two ways to get "old mo" back on our side:

1. Increase mass - to me this means increase activity level. Often we lose momentum because we stop doing those things that created the momentum in the first place.

2. Increase velocity - to me this means stop procrastinating and putting things off. A faster moving object creates more momentum than a slower moving object.

Golf Lesson

If you are a golfer, you can relate to the term "bogey train". A bogey train is a situation where "old mo" has left you and no matter what you do, you can't make better than bogey on each hole. You see this frequently in pro tournaments. A golfer gets on a streak and seems to make every putt. Or the opposite, they seem to miss every fairway or green, and are constantly missing greens or short putts.

Good golfers have found the best way to regain momentum is to do two things:

1. Have a routine and stick to it. It is very easy when things start going bad to abandon those things which have worked well in the past.

2. Play each shot rather than worry about the score. A golfer can't force results. All they can do is make the best decision possible, hit the ball as best they can, and then observe the results.

Personal Accountability

First, let me say that I executed my game plan to perfection last week. I got everything done that I needed to get done, had a wonderful meeting with a new client, picked up a new piece of business with a former client, and shot a 74 on the golf course. Can't get much better than that.

When I do profiles on prospective candidates for jobs at my clients, one factor that I always look at in the results is personal accountability. This seems to be common characteristic that superior performers possess in almost any type of job or situation. Personal accountability is the capacity to take responsibility for your own actions and not to blame others.

I once had the opportunity to work with a former prison psychologist ( not as an inmate ) and he said one of the things he figured out very quickly was that we needed to have twice as many prisons. The reason that he said this was that every prisoner he talked to blamed someone else for being incarcerated.

Sometimes it's easy to blame a loss of a deal on a prospect who just doesn't understand what it is that you can do for them, or the economy, or a unethical competitor or timing, or any one of a bunch of excuses. What I have to come to realize is that the only reason I don't close a deal is me.

Here are ways to develop personal accountability:

1. Set your own goals.
2. Work towards your goals every day.
3. Keep commitments. Don't make promises you can't keep.
4. Admit your mistakes - first to yourself, then others.
5. Don't blame others if something doesn't work out.

Golf Lesson

Individual sports are humbling. There is no better place to develop personal accountability than on the golf course. Yes, sometimes we hit a good shot and get a bad result. A bad bounce turns a good shot into a bad one. Or someone put a tree right where our ball landed. Or put a sand trap right in the path of our ball.

For several years, my club hosted a Nike Tour (later Buy.com, Nationwide) event. This tour is made up of a combination of young players trying to develop their game to make it on the PGA tour and former PGA tour players who had lost their playing privileges and were looking to regain the magic that they once had. I had the opportunity to work as a walking scorer during these events, and so was "inside the ropes". I got to see and hear the players first hand. Some of the younger players have gone on to star on the PGA tour.

While this may be an unfair generalization, I saw the younger players generally have a much better attitude than the older players. They seem to accept their position on the minor tour. They were thankful to be there. They didn't complain about the set up of the course or the conditions. they just went out and tried to play as best they could.

The former PGA tour players generally had a negative outlook. The traps weren't raked perfectly, the rough was too high, the greens too slow or too fast, and so on. Their poor performance was caused by factors outside their control according to their belief. In the years that the minor tour has been around, I can't remember one player who has successfully come back to the PGA tour.

If you are a golfer, try playing one round by taking responsibility for every shot you hit. It might make a difference in your outlook and game.

A Game Plan

I'm sitting at my desk the day before a holiday weekend contemplating everything that I need to do next week. I have a couple of client engagements, one of which is going to require a lot of preparation. I have to write an article for one of my newsletters. I need to complete an audio program that I committed to do. Plus, I set a goal to write one blog per week. On top of this is training for my first half marathon in December and at least two rounds of golf.

I need a game plan. What works best for me is to establish a completion date for each task and work back to when I need to start it. That is called necessity thinking. About 80 percent of the population are necessity thinkers. We are at our best when we have deadlines and pressure. The other end of the spectrum are possibility thinkers who begin tasks as soon as possible and do all they can to avoid the pressure of a deadline.

A problem that we necessity thinkers sometimes face is that we are overly optimistic regarding the amount of time to complete a task. If something unexpected comes up, we end up scrambling even more to get everything done. We are more prone to mistakes when we are in the scramble mode.

So, my game plan is to build in a little extra time for each task. If all goes perfectly, then I'll have a some extra time to work on something else, or maybe even get in another round of golf.

Golf Lesson

Professional golfers develop a game plan for tournament that they play.They will play practice rounds before a tournament to get a feel for the course and to develop a strategy for playing each hole. They do this so they have fewer strategic decisions to make during a tournament and can focus their attention on making good shots.

It is interesting that much of the planning is done backwards. They usually start with where they want to land the ball on the green. On a course like Augusta National, this is absolutely essential to shooting a good score. Once they know where they want to land the ball on the green, they determine the best place in the fairway to hit the ball from. They will try to position tee shots or lay up shots to be in the best position to approach the green.

Most amateur golfers could save several strokes per round having a game plan, particularly if if is a course you play all the time.