“I’m no good”, “I never hit good shots”, some days Pesky can rule your mind and fill it with all sorts of garbage.
And it can get worse.
The next step is you start believing him. You keep making up stories like, “yeah, I always miss those little putt”, “last week I hit it out of bounds” etc etc. It’s like you give Pesky a reason to keep coming back.
Here’s my take.
You have all the necessary talent to play great golf. You really do. Maybe you’re not going to win the Club Championships or compete with a golf pro, but you’ve been playing long enough and you have enough skill to play better golf than you do right now.
The trick is to ignore Pesky, you can’t fight him because he is always there. You’ve gotta accept he is there but not give him any power. This is difficult but possible.
For me, when there’s lots of internal conversation and story telling happening, it’s a sign that I need to get back to basics and play golf. Playing golf is my term to swing freely and hit the shots that feel good to me. “Playing Golf” gives Pesky the cold shoulder – he won’t like this and he’ll try really hard to creep back in. But you can’t let him.
So don’t worry if the odd bad thought comes in, it’s going to happen. Just don’t give them any power by believing them and making up more stories.
Controlling Pesky is a learned skill, it’s really up to you to take control. So please don’t tell me you’re no good if you keep listening to (and believing) him.