From the book “Messages for a Happier Life,” William B. Smart counsels:
Promise yourself that you will never, never make excuses for your poor performance. If someone asks you what your score is after a round, tell them your score. Don’t tell them you got a bad lie in the rough. “Never talk about a three putt, never talk about a bad break. Even if it wasn’t your fault, say you played as well as you could. People will respect you and you will respect yourself and in time, you will play better. The only way to improve is to get rid of excuses.” The speaker was Keith Clearwater at a youth golf camp at Brigham Young University. With good reason the young people listened. Early in a professional career after being a golf all-American at BYU, Clearwater had just set a course record in the U.S.Open.
For an hour, he held this young audience spellbound with talk of life on the tour, golf swings, strategy. But in the process he gave some profound truths that apply far beyond the bounds of the golf course. On handling fear and pressure: is to fill your mind with what you want to accomplish. Period. Positive thinking is filling your mind with what you want to do. On fundamentals: Talk to Jack Nicklaus. He’s the greatest who ever played the game. And all he does is improve his fundamentals. There are no secrets, no short cuts. You must have to learn the basics and then build a game around them. On character: These golf camps help you learn about golf, but it is your character that determines if you will be a winner. On companions: Associate yourself with winners and people who are good.
But especially that advice about excuses. Clearwater put in simple, clear terms what experts have been trying for years to tell us—and what the Lord Himself taught. One essential quality of of a high-performance person is that of accepting accountability for their own acts. Every man or woman of real achievement has that quality in common, and with it the great feeling of guiding one’s own destiny. So many people go through life by the rule: “If at first you don’t succeed, fix the blame fast.” These are the people who never really grow up; the surest test of maturity is that of being comfortable with accountability, Only by accountability, by not making excuses, not blaming others, is progress possible. There are, of course, things beyond our control. We are not responsible for earthquakes. We are not responsible, usually, for the mean or selfish acts of others. But we are responsible for our reaction to them. Accepting that responsibility is the mark of maturity, the key to progress.
The Lord left no room for doubt about our accountability. He will render to every man according to his deeds. (see Romans 2:6) And that’s not all. In the day of judgment He will require and account of every idle word we speak. “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” (See Matt. 12:36-37.)And in our time: “. . . every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment.” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:78.)
What those young people heard in that golf camp may or may not help them hit a golf ball better, What it shall surely do, if they really heard, is prepare them for eternity. ~ William B. Smart; Messages for a Happier Life (Salt Lake City; Deseret Book 1989), p.79-80
