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We all have what I call an inner game thermostat. It governs your inner game temperature, so to speak. Your comfort zone is like a climate controlled room. If it gets too cool then it's time to heat up. If it gets too hot the air conditioner turns on to cool things down.

Your inner thermostat does exactly what it is preprogrammed to do - bring your game back to *normal*! How? By producing what appears to be the "wrong swing at the wrong time". Yet in reality it is actually the "right swing at the right time!" Your inner game thermostat calmly runs beneath your conscious awareness. Perfectly controlling your game.

The same goes for when you are approaching your personal low score. Yet there's something funny about the settings on the low side of our comfort zone... The thermostat seems to kick in with even more certainty!

(Have you ever noticed that even though your scores might be climbing and you are not happy about it, it feels easier and somehow more acceptable than going really low? I'm not saying you don't want to go low. I'm saying that you are *familiar* with shooting higher scores because you've done this more often than shoot really low scores.)

Your Inner Game Thermostat and How To Reset It

As you get nearer to breaking your personal best it kicks on and returns your game to "normal". You card a couple bogies in a row and guess what? You magically shoot within the range of scoring your unconscious has hardwired for you! Your comfort zone is maintained*...The strange thing is there's nothing comfortable about it at all! We are comfortable because of only one thing: we have made it a habit.

Comfort zones are a long and slow death to any hopes you have of reaching your potential. I don't care what kind of goal setting plan, or mental game worksheet you follow or how much you practice. Your internal setting for what you "believe" about your game is what calls the shots. Pun fully intended. :-)

There are specific strategies for creating new settings on your inner game thermostat. Nothing complicated yet they are extremely powerful and effective. But hey, only you know how much you want to break out of your comfort zone.

...it's kind of like the proverbial frog in a pot of water. Set the frog in a pot of water and slowly bring it to a boil and the frog stays there because it is comfortable along the way...

Reach the next level in your game and make the changes you want now. After all, the water is slowly coming to a boil...