Grit Failure (#162)
2021 B-2 Masters Championship
Every year for the past ten years, three of my West Point friends and I have met to play golf for a weekend. The winner of the weekend takes home the coveted “Salmon Jacket” as the B-2 Masters Champion. It’s been a great time for the four of us to reconnect, be outside, travel, and play golf. In 2021 the B-2 Masters Championship was played on four courses on Kiawah Island, South Carolina. We even got to play on the Ocean Course, the site of the 2021 PGA Championship. It is an extremely challenging course.
I define grit as the will to persevere to achieve long term goals. A person’s grit is built upon six components: a purpose, a goal, perseverance, resilience, courage to deal with the fear of failure, and motivation. One of the most important parts of grit is establishing your goal. Take a look at Post #86 if you want to learn even more about how to improve your goal setting techniques.
This year, I set out to win the B-2 Masters Championship between our foursome. In order to do this I established a goal of “Between September 4-6, play four rounds better than my 20+ handicap.” The goal was a SMART goal — it was specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. Intuitively, I knew that I needed to play and practice golf more to achieve the results I wanted.
Despite my goal, life and my business got in the way. I struggled to find the time to play. I barely practiced. A month out, I got my putting mat out and hit at least 20 putts a day. I hit a few chip shots and whiffle ball golf balls in the back yard. I tried to go to the golf course to play, but got rained out the one day I managed to drive all the way to the course. Not carving out time on the calendar to actually play and practice golf ham-stringed my ability to play better than my handicap.
Results
As you probably can guess with my poor practice routine, I came in a solid 4th place amongst the group and did not return home with the “Salmon Jacket.” So I conducted an After Action Review (See Post #41 for how to do this with your team) of my performance which will help me do better in the future. Next year, I will create a SMART goal three months out. Then, I will ensure that I break the goal down into pieces and schedule practice and playing time on the calendar so I can have a better chance of going home a winner.
Conclusion
I failed at winning the 2021 B-2 Masters Championship because I failed to break the goal down into parts and failed to put a practice strategy on the calendar. Go on the offense in 2021 and 2022, create goals, and then, more importantly, create the plan and time on the calendar to accomplish those goals.
