Episode 691 - Not Perfect

In this episode, Phil discusses the valuable lessons from Bob Rotella's book, Golf is Not a Game of Perfect, and how they apply to life. Much like life, golf is filled with ups and downs, successes and failures, camaraderie and loneliness. Phil shares personal stories, including his experiences in aviation and engaging conversations with diverse individuals. He emphasizes the importance of asking questions, staying curious, and learning from every interaction. Whether you're dealing with setbacks in golf, flying, or everyday life, Phil's insights will inspire you to embrace imperfection and move forward with resilience.

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Transcript

Top performers in every field surround themselves with those who inspire them, who seek to build them up, and who push them to reach beyond their current limits. I am Phil Buchanan, executive chairman of Cannon Financial Institute. I designed Monday Morning Mojo to provide you with a weekly spark, a push and motivational insight to live your best life.

Thanks for joining. Good Monday morning, Phil Buchanan here with episode 691 of Monday Morning Mojo. Bob Rotella wrote a great book many years ago that I had both of my daughters read when they were playing competitive junior golf. The book is entitled, golf is Not a Game of Perfect. Now, golf is a great sport.

It's fun to play, but it also eerily can parallel life. It can be a beautiful experience, but along the way, well, there'll be adversity. There'll be frustrations, there'll be failures, there'll be exhilaration, there'll be success. There'll be comradery. I. There will be loneliness. It, it's amazing. Now, Rotella's, big theme in golf is not a game of perfect, is that you will never, ever be a perfect golfer.

So go ahead and forgive yourself success, he says in golf, and I believe this to be true in life, is more dependent on coming back. From mistakes errant shots and from being imperfect than it is about being totally precise in everyday action. We're human. We're going to make mistakes. Now he followed. Golf is not a game of perfect with the book entitled, life is Not a Game of Perfect.

It wasn't as popular but was also a very good read. Now I was. Asked several years ago why I am always so willing to engage in very open-ended conversations with everyone, from very prominent people to wealthy investors, to men and women who become my seat mates on planes. My answer to the person who was asking this question kind of surprised him.

I told them that I was agnostic as to the topic or reply that I might get in the conversations that I have. See, when I get into a conversation, I've got a level of confidence in my ability to keep the discussions going. Now, the individual who had posed this question was like. Okay. Well, not everybody can be like that.

I said, no, no, no. I'm not saying that from a position of confidence or arrogance, not at all. But rather, it's from a realization that I've gotten the ability to learn something from everyone and in every conversation that I have, and I'm able to get these learnings because. I pepper them with additional questions.

Questions like, tell me more, or That idea is new to me. Explain it like you would explain it to a young child. In doing so, I find that I can always keep conversations going, so coming back from a downturn or an error or a mistake, well. It's kind of like keeping conversations going. It's recognizing that you're not going to know all the information, you're not going to be perfect, but that you can move forward.

You know, coming back from eras and mistakes, well, that's lauded in America, especially when you own the mistake. Some call that humility, I guess. But the thing that I found is you can create significant winning momentum. When you accept that you're gonna have speed bumps, you're gonna make mistakes on the journey.

The key is to learn from, acknowledge them, and then move forward. I had a young colleague berate herself one time for a very unintentional error that she had made. I told her it wasn't that big a deal, but she exclaimed. I hate making mistakes. I looked at her point blank and asked where the hubris was coming from that allowed her to think that she could be perfect all the time.

She smiled and she said, I get it. I know I'm not perfect, but I still hate making mistakes. Mistakes. I told her, well, that's, that's part of life. It's not being perfect. It's how you recover That will actually define and be remembered emotionally. Chastising yourself does nothing but delay, recovery, and moving forward.

So learn from your mistakes and move on. She smiled. Took the information to heart and today is incredibly successful in our own right. Many of you know that I learned to fly planes at an older age than most pilots, and all of my instructors save a couple, have been younger than me. Some have been younger than my kids.

Yet every instructor I've worked with has been very deferential, but excellent in their instruction. Yet, perhaps the best lesson I ever had came when I was practicing what are known as upset recoveries. Basically what happens is your instructor has you cover your eyes, and then they put the plane into something that is known as an unusual attitude.

An unusual attitude means the plane might be pointed directly at the ground, or it may be in a direct pitch up attitude headed towards the moon. But of course it won't get to the moon. It would stall beforehand. So when they get the plane and these unusual attitudes, they instruct you to open your eyes and react.

And so as the pilot, you must quickly assess the situation and then take the appropriate recovery techniques to get the plane flying straight and level again. After performing these maneuvers several times to my instructor's satisfaction, he made a comment that sticks with me to this day. He said, no one ever intends to be in an unusual attitude, but it happens.

The key is knowing how to recover as in golf, as in flying, as in life. So the journey is not going to be perfect. It's not flawless, but the ones who thrive know how to recover without dwelling on the mistake. I wanna challenge all of you to use this approach to soar to even greater heights in the coming months.

I wish you the best. Monday morning Mojo is production of Cannon Financial Institute, executive producer of Monday Morning Mojo is Sarah Jones. Editing and mixing is done by Danny Brunner, production Manager is Daniela Delgado. Until next time, I'm Phil Buchanan reminding you to be a force for good. Have a great week and thanks for being part of the Mojo community.