I had the great pleasure of playing in my high school alumni golf tournament this past weekend with my son, another buddy, and his son.  Nothing quite like it.  But as we stepped up to the tee box and started taking our practice swings, I noticed something a little bit off in my friend’s swing.

“Uh, weren’t you right-handed the last time we played golf?”

“Yes. I was. Now I play left-handed.”

“Huh?”

It’s not something you just decide to switch, like the drapes or a radio station.  The mechanics are polar opposite and it is like playing a completely different game.  How could this be?  It turns out my buddy is naturally left-handed in all other sports.  But many, many years ago, he won a contest for his job shortly out of college.  The reward points allowed him to buy golf clubs, but the only ones available were right-handed clubs.  Since he wasn’t much of a golfer at the time, he decided to purchase them and groove his swing with these clubs.  He played right-handed golf for years and never looked back.

After decades of struggling with the game, tweaking his swing along the way, he finally decided to get a new pair of clubs.  But a day after his new right-handed clubs arrived, he just happened to pick up the left-handed club of a friend.  And nonchalantly striped the ball 250 yards down the middle.  Hmmm.  He immediately went to the manufacturer of his  clubs and showed a video of him swinging left-handed.  The manufacturer had never seen anything like it.  They immediately switched up his clubs and provided him a brand-new set of left-handed clubs!  And the rest is history.

Now, I’m not saying that he is breaking any course records.  But he swings free and easy and has never seemed more relaxed on the course.  After years of grinding and tweaking, it took a radically different approach to return him to his natural state.  This is who he is.  And I wonder how many of us could benefit from taking a completely different approach to our own lives?

It’s Never Too Late for Change

We may settle into the first career opportunity available to us out of college.  Years go by and we grind, we make a living, and we settle into a routine that is tedious but comfortable.  But is this what stokes our passion?  Is this who we were meant to be?  Perhaps we are not cut out to lead a company.   Perhaps, we weren’t meant to sit behind a desk.  Perhaps corporate life is something we pursued out of obligation.  Perhaps we have not found our true calling!  Sometimes it requires more than just a tweak.  Sometimes it requires us to step back and take a radically different approach.  It may seem like the ruts are too deep to switch tracks, but it’s never too late!

And the same is true for everything we do in our lives.  Relationships. Health. Habits.  Finances.  Slight changes and alterations may help.  It is important to never settle and constantly work at improvement.  But these tweaks of the same swing path may not be enough.  What worked for us ten years ago may no longer apply.  Sometimes radical change is needed in order to recalibrate our lives.

Action is the Key

But what happens when we make a drastic change and things go from bad to worse?  We change careers but can’t make ends meet.  We change partners but still can’t find happiness.  We move into a new community but still feel isolated or lonely.  We pursue a our passion but still feel unfulfilled.  Bold changes are hard.  And they are not a panacea.  But even when they are unsuccessful, they matter.

Resilience is about having the courage and motivation to take some action in our lives when we are down.  Even if we don’t feel better off, even if we are not successful, that simple act of change fills us with hope.  And because we acted, it makes it easier to pivot and act again until we get it right.  And we will get eventually get it right!

Keep Searching for Answers

Golf is a funny game.  My buddy fell into the clubs that were available to him at the time.  For years, he believed he was a lesser golfer as he looked to make slight alterations.  But then a radical revelation and subsequent action changed his mindset and opened up new possibilities and dreams.  And that is sometimes what it takes in life.

It’s okay to ask big questions.  It’s okay to pivot. It’s okay to step back and make big changes in our lives.  And it’s okay to fail over and over as long as we are taking action and moving forward.  Don’t be afraid.  You may be a left-handed golfer playing with right-handed clubs.

The answers are out there if we keep searching.