I used to play golf, but have lost the luster. Lately, I would wonder why anyone would spend five hours of their day doing such a thing.

Our family spent the last week at a cabin resort where golf was a primary activity for the guests.   After I participated in a closest to the pin contest, I was reminded why golf can be so enticing. Golf is creative. Each shot is unique, and presents us with an opportunity to create something new. With golf we can see the results of getting better, whether it be a better score or a fabulous shot. We golf because we enjoy turning our potential into a new reality.

It’s a lot like life. Each moment of life is unique, and presents us with an opportunity to create something new.  With each life decision we take a new shot.

There is one major difference, however, when comparing the creativity of life with the creativity of golf.  With golf the feedback is immediate.   With life the feedback is delayed and sometimes never seems to occur.   

In life, our decisions take much longer to manifest.   And often they manifest so much later that we don’t see the connection between our decisions and our life outcomes.   We lose sight that our decisions affect our reality, and we blame others for our life outcomes.  Rest assured, however, our decisions ultimately do manifest.   We are more or less the cumulative product of our decisions.

For me the trick in life is remembering this.  That we have a hand in our fate – no matter how invisible that hand may be.   And like golf, life becomes a lot more fun when we remember our shots (decisions) are responsible for turning our potential into a new reality.

Timothy Velner is a husband, father, attorney and author living in Minneapolis. You can follow his daily blog – a series of discussions between the worry-self and the present-self at – thespiritualgym.me

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