...you never know what you're gonna hit.
Father’s Day in the Nathan household typically means one thing: Golf.
Even though my dad plays golf two to three times a week anyway, Father’s Day is almost always reserved for a round of 9 or 18 on the links.
I didn’t play very well on this Father’s Day (not that I’m an undiscovered Tiger to begin with). It wasn’t all bad, but it wasn’t all good, either. I topped a tee shot and hit the ball 50 yards, but followed it with a second shot that went 180 yards straight down the fairway. I hit another tee shot 308 yards (seriously, I did, and I have witnesses), but managed to bogey the hole. There were shots in the water, shots in the bunker, shots that made that perfect ‘whap’ sound off the iron, and shots that you try to be humble about but inside you want to scream out, “Hell yeah! I’m the man!” There were putts that saved par, and putts that were flat out subpar.
Golf is a lot like life. I’m sure I’m not the first one to make this analogy, but my Father’s Day round was the first time I realized it. You have your ups and your downs. Just when you feel like you’re on a roll or in a groove, reality slaps you in the face. Your dad gives you advice along the way, and you make calculated decisions on whether to heed it or not (and usually when you don’t, you end up in the rough). You do what you can to learn from your mistakes, and no matter what anyone else tells you, to be successful it’s ultimately on you to make the necessary adjustments.
To win in golf, and to win in life, you have to know how to ride the ebbs and flows. The only way to truly enjoy either is not to get too caught up in the highs, nor brought down by the lows. Keep level-head intact and you can achieve greatness.
On the 6th hole of our outing the starter asked our foursome to pick up our rate of play because we were holding up the group behind us and needed to catch up to the group in front of us.
Golf is a funny sport. Life is funny, too. You can spend your time worrying about who’s behind you coming up on your tail, and spend time worrying about how the people ahead of you perform. In either case, you’re not doing yourself any favors by living and playing at their pace. At the end of the day you just have to do you.
When you do, you’ll set the pace, instead of trying to keep up with it.
Happy Father’s Day to my dad and to all dads.
@RajNATION
Author: Rajiv Nathan
Rajiv Nathan is the co-founder of Idea Lemon with a background in digital and mobile strategy. He is passionately curious, a people-meeter and lives by the motto, "you miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
