I went to Topgolf.
That sentence probably doesn’t sound like the beginning of some great life lesson. And maybe it isn’t.
Maybe sometimes hitting a golf ball is just hitting a golf ball.
But standing there with a club in my hands brought back memories.
A Long Way From High School
I played golf in high school.
That was a long time ago.
Back then, picking up a club felt different. There was muscle memory. There was practice. There was some idea of what I was supposed to be doing.
Now?
Well, let’s just say Tiger Woods doesn’t have anything to worry about.
But what surprised me wasn’t how rusty I was.
It was how quickly I got inside my own head.
Where are my feet?
Am I holding the club right?
Keep your head down.
Don’t swing too hard.
Why did that one go there?
I know how to do this.
At least, I used to know how to do this.
And suddenly something that was supposed to be fun started becoming a test I had invented for myself.
We Do This With More Than Golf
That’s when it hit me.
How often do we do this in life?
We don’t simply try something.
We measure ourselves against who we used to be.
We compare today’s swing to the one from twenty-some years ago.
We remember when something came easier and wonder why it doesn’t anymore.
Or maybe we don’t try at all because we’re afraid we won’t be very good.
That voice in our head starts talking before we ever take the swing.
What if you fail?
What if you look ridiculous?
What if you aren’t as good as you remember?
Maybe.
But what if you have fun?
Somewhere Along the Way, I Started Laughing
Not every ball went where I wanted it to go.
Some probably had travel plans of their own.
But eventually I stopped worrying so much about what the swing looked like.
I just swung.
And it was fun.
Really fun.
For a little while, I wasn’t worried about being the high-school golfer I remembered. I wasn’t worried about the score or proving that I could still do it.
I was just there.
Club in my hands.
Ball in front of me.
Swing.
Sometimes that’s enough.
Maybe We Need More of That
Life has given me plenty of reminders lately that we don’t control nearly as much as we’d like to believe.
We make plans. We picture how things are supposed to go. We get comfortable with routines and with the people we expect to be beside us.
Then life changes.
And eventually we’re standing somewhere unfamiliar, trying to figure out our stance again.
Maybe that’s why this little trip to Topgolf stuck with me.
I’m a long way from that kid playing golf in high school.
I’m not supposed to be him anymore.
I’ve lived a lot of life since then.
I’ve won some things.
I’ve lost some things.
I’ve changed.
And maybe instead of constantly asking whether we can still do something as well as we once did, we should occasionally ask a much simpler question:
Did I enjoy taking the swing?
This time, I did.
Take the Swing
There are probably things you’ve stopped doing.
Something you loved when you were younger.
Something you haven’t done because you’re rusty.
Something you’ve talked yourself out of because you don’t think you’ll be very good anymore.
Maybe it’s golf.
Maybe it’s traveling.
Maybe it’s calling an old friend.
Maybe it’s starting something completely new.
Whatever it is, don’t let the voice inside your head convince you that everything has to be perfect before you begin.
You might miss.
You might look ridiculous.
You might discover you’re nowhere near as good as you remember.
Take the swing anyway.
Because sometimes the victory isn’t where the ball lands.
Sometimes it’s simply remembering that you can still step up, grab the club, and swing.
