Courage To Overcome Fear

In your quest to find more solutions to the psychological challenges of golf, you will come across terms like concentration, focus, thought control, arousal control, visualization, breathing techniques, rituals and so on.
But there's one ability that works on a completely different level and confronts the biggest obstacle to inner calm and peace of mind, allowing you to play your best golf.

The biggest obstacle to your best performance is fear.
There are all sorts of fears that may be present while (or before) you play:  

So how do we deal with all of these fears?

With Courage.
Courage is the hidden mental quality of every successful golf player (and other athletes). Courage is rarely discussed or written about yet it is the key mental ability that separates winners from losers.

How Fear Hurts Your Game
In general, the fear will stop you from doing something that is NECESSARY to play better golf and win more tournaments in the long term.

The fear stops you from reaching your full potential and they will remain your weaknesses forever.

If you are afraid to play over water hazards, you'll never develop the swing needed to be a high quality golfer. Your shots will just be too safe and you won't challange the golf course.

In order to overcome the fear we must simply be brave. Courage is nothing more than being willing to do what is necessary in spite of feeling the fear.

Courageous players are not fearless. On the contrary, they feel the same fear as you do, but they are willing to go against it and you need to go against your fears with courage and determination and know that the fear only stops you from improving and playing better golf.

The key is to courageously confront the fear again and again. That's where the drastic change will happen.

You won't be affected by fear that much anymore. Your body won't be so tense or shaky, you'll be able to calm your mind better and your shots (or decisions) will improve in the long term.

That's when you must look back at the journey you have taken thus far and at the key decision to go against the fear and do what has to be done in spite of the fear. You'll see that your improvement was caused by that key decision to go against the fear - to be courageous.

Courage can improve your golf in giant leaps. Once you understand that fear is your worst enemy in the long term, you must become very attentive to your inner chatter and try to detect if there are any fears present.