By Anne Sands

In our "The Power of You" sessions, I have challenged our junior golfers to speak in the first person, using "I" instead of "you." This is one of the strategies to help them take ownership of their own feelings, actions, reactions and results in all the arenas of their lives (for example, to hold that the source of my experience of life and how I feel at any given moment is not outside of me - I am the source).

We have agreed to honor the request of using "I" rather than using "you" or "we." I notice that people in general have a tendency to say "I" when they like the result they have created and to say "you" or "we" when they don't, or when they are being humble. For instance, listen with an ear to ownership language in T.V., ie interviews with golf pro's during or after tournaments.

One of the objections people sometimes raise to speaking with "I" is the team builder's slogan:"There is no "I" in team." Even though the game of golf is not usually a team sport, we all live and work in teams of different sorts at various times during our life. For example, we all belong to the team we call "family." The slogan is designed to remind people that the result is the team's, not any one individual's. Unfortunately, taking the position that it is "our" result often produces only partial participation, in that responsibility for results doesn't fall upon any one individual.

It is accurate that the team produces the result. Everyone does contribute. However, it doesn't work for any one member to think that way.

The "ownership attitude" is the key position that supports success in any and all endeavors, whether they are team or individual efforts. In conversations with himself or herself, the person who approaches life through the ownership attitude says, "This is my team, my result, my family, my city, my school, my company." This thinking supports full participation in creating the desired outcome. From the ownership attitude, I take responsibility for the result. Even if I don't like the result, by owning it, I am now in a position of power to change it or do something different, versus blaming someone or something outside of me and waiting for them or it to change.

The Brent Morrison Golf Academy is located at Pheasant Glen Golf Resort, 1025 Qualicum Road, Qualicum Beach, B.C. V9K 1M5. (250) 752-8786. For more information on instruction programs for adults and juniors, contact the Academy office.

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