11 Apr NAVIGATING YOUR LIFE: FIND YOUR AUTHENTIC SWING
Moss Jackson, PhD
Psychologist and Success Coach
THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE
The Legend of Bagger Vance is one of my favorite movies. Bagger is a hobo-type “drifter” who magically appears when things look desperate. Bagger shows up one night right before a major challenge to a young man, Juno who is soon to compete against two of the world’s best golfers, Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones. Juno is a mess, broken by the horrors of WW1 and suffering from PTSD. He is fucked up! He has lost his swing!
The Legend of Bagger Vance is about golf and also about life. Yes, there is a golfer’s swing and there is a highly unique personal “swing,” an inner voice that quiets the noisy mind and allows you to take the next step into your life. No one can give it to you. Some of us can coach or prod you to pause long enough to look around, search inside, let go of your failure swing and rediscover your life navigator’s swing. Your authentic swing and your navigator’s swing are basically the same thing.
YOUR AUTHENTIC SWING
Bobby Jones has his authentic swing, as does Hagen. Juno lost it and like other potentially tragic characters before him, he has a choice: give up and stay in failure mode or pause and invite his authentic self to emerge once again into his life. But it requires a major shift in consciousness away from what he took on to survive, he must now surrender to his spirit or authentic self. In other posts, we will look at how all of us have “sold out” to survive, thinking this is how to get by and make it through life. Unfortunately, life spirit eventually catches up with us, frequently only hours or moments before we die to remind us who won. Did you take in life with courage and gusto or did you give up, accommodate and play it safe? When you play it safe you let your spirit die. Or, did you play your swing and see where you ended up? Its not that much different than seeing where your golf ball lands after you take a swing at it.
Even though Juno struggles, Bagger “drifts” from hole to hole with a quiet mind and grace. He represents Juno’s spirit or authentic self. Juno starts to find his swing but still has to confront the crucial “shot” of the last round. He hits a terrible shot, loses his essential self, panics and almost succumbs to failure mode. His golf shot lands deep in the woods and he hovers over his next shot and starts to reach toward it to move it to a better position. All his fears, regrets and anxieties flood through. In other words. He is about to cheat.
A MOMENT OF CHOICE
Juno’s moment is at hand. Let fear take him back into the Survivor or Victim mode? OR reach into his bag of life and hit his authentic swing, even though his situation looks desperate. Does he cheat or not? (You have to see the movie to see his choice).
To cheat is so tempting, like a comfortable blanket that temporarily eases your pain. The risk of taking your shot can be terrifying. What if you fail? Look foolish?
All of us carry regrets, shame and fear. Yet we can pause, come out of the shadows and choose life knowing you are not alone. You have billions of others alongside of you facing the same choice. Just imagine how the world could change if we all remembered our authentic swings, gave life a whack and watched what followed? What if we could reach a tipping point of authentic swings? How would our lives and our realities turn out?
BE A NAVIGATOR
I invite you to live the life of a Navigator. We all have a choice: do you succumb to life as a Victim or struggle as a Survivor? Or do you reach deep inside, breath into your fear and tell it you understand how scared it is and step into the world of being a Life Navigator, inventing along the way and “drifting” from hole to hole, fully playing at the Game of Life
STOP THINKING SO MUCH
At a critical moment in the movie, Hagen tells Juno “Hit the ball before you think about it!” Thinking too much can pull us away from our authentic swing. What if I’m wrong? What if I fail? What will others think? Worry takes over and we drift into chaos and confusion. There may not be a lot of thinking or figuring out required. Just trust your intuition, take a full swing and learn from the experience. You all have taken a chance at some time in your life. Do you remember the feeling? For me, it was an aroma! A mixed aroma of eucalyptus and baked bread. This is the smell I now breathe in when I take my swing, what’s yours?
Like golf, life is a game that cannot be won, only played. So play on, take your swings and move from hole to hole. Maybe a Bagger Vance will show up in your life as a guide or life coach. Let’s meet some time long in the future and share our collective authentic voice together.
In the meantime, sign up for my Navigating Your Life blog or read my book, “I Didn’t Come To Say Goodbye.” Maybe I can be your Bagger Vance for a few of life’s holes!