Balance is the most important fundamental in golf. I have been able to play some excellent rounds by swinging off-balance and using my hand-eye coordination to square the club at the last second, but the results have been erratic. To be able to build a repeatable golf swing, everything relies on your discipline to stay balanced from takeaway to follow-through.
Balance in life requires discipline, too. Getting yourself out of bed in the morning (especially after a late night) can be hard. Blocking out the distractions around you to be able to sit down and create, taking feedback from others to improve yourself, even if it means being humbled: these are not always easy.
But who is the enemy here? Is it internal or external? I’ve recently started reading The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, and he says the enemy is internal and he’s given it a name. He calls it the Resistance. Reading this book scares me; with every page I see how the Resistance is at work in my own life. Now that I have a name for it, the Resistance is working harder than ever to keep control over me, making me want to put off work until the last minute, say this is not good enough and be afraid to send it out, or drop it completely and do something, anything, that will bring me instant gratification instead of lasting success. Breaking the hold of the Resistance will be a hard fight for me, but it is one I’m determined to win.
Interestingly enough, one of Pressfield’s first books was The Legend of Bagger Vance, a story I’ve read many times. Rannulph Junah is a WW1 veteran and golfer who battles the Resistance deep within his own mind. I guess Junah and I have more in common than I first realized.