A Time to Reflect and a Time to Look Ahead


As we come to the end of another year, I think it is beneficial to do two things. 1)reflect on the past year (what you did well and what mistakes can we learn from) 2. Set goals and look ahead to 2010 (what do you want to accomplish and more importantly do different and improve on). I enjoy looking at my goals that I had set to see which ones I accomplished and which ones that I didn’t and may want to carry over to next year. I encourage you all to do these things as well. Break them down into different categories (golf, spiritual, career, fitness etc.). I am not going to bore you with all my goals and aspirations but I will share with you a few things that I think might spark some interest in your growth as a golfer and as a person. One of the traits that we live by at the Dana Rader Golf School is being a continuous learner in all aspects of life. I work with a group of go getters that will not let you rest on your success and that keeps me on my toes when it comes to growth as a teacher/coach and as an individual which I like. We all enjoy sharing our knowledge gained from the books we read in our book club sessions or on our own and our best practice trips from other golf schools or facilities. I am a veracious reader and always have 3 to 4 books going at one time. If someone recommends a book I usually find a way to get it and read it. I often get the question from students or people that I meet. “What are you reading?” or “what are your favorite golf books”.  I would guess that I have read hundreds of golf books and you might be surprised that I do read about other things that I find interesting and might help me in life or my career.  So I made a list of the books that I read in 2009 (the ones that I could remember) and also a short list of my favorite golf books that I would recommend having in your library. Although I do think it is difficult to learn everything about golf from a book, it is a great place to start.  One of my idols, Mr. Jim Rohn said,”There is no coincidence why there is always a library in houses of $250,000 or more.” So here is some food for thought or bread for the head. I encourage you all to take some time to write down your goals for the upcoming year and reflect (good or bad) on the past year.  I hope you enjoy my list and would love to hear about some books that inspired you in your life.

Guru’s 2009 Book List :

1.The Power of Nice by Kaplan, Koval

2.Your 15th Club The Inner Secret to Golf by Rotella

3. The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson

4. The Power of Who by Bob Beudine

5. Take your performance to the next level, 50/50, secrets I learned from running 50 marathons in 50 days  by Dean Karnazes

6.Going  The Extra Mile by Pam Reed

7. Mind Over Golf by Dick Coop

8. Instinct Putting by Alpenfels

9. The Seven Principles of Golf  by Darrin Gee

10. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

11. Influencer- the power to change anything by Patterson

12. The impact Zone by Bobby Clampett

13. 25 ways to win with people by John Maxwell

14. Breaking the Slump by Jimmy Roberts

15. What happy people know by Dan Baker

Some of my favorite golf books:

1. Rock Solid Golf by Dana Rader

2. Swing Secrets and Lies by Mike Hebron

3. Perfectly Balanced Golf by Chuck Cook

4. Ben Hogan’s 5 lessons

5. the 30 second golf swing by T.J. Tomassi

6. Golf My Way by Jack Nicklaus

7 Flick on Golf by Jim Flick

8. On learning Golf by Percy Boomer

9. The Golfing Machine by Homer Kelly

10.Golfs Sacred Journey- seven days at  the links of utopia by David L. Cook

 

What I am currently reading:

Homer Kelleys Golfing Machine, the curious quest that solved golf by Scott Gummer

Sole Purpose- shoes of hope from the feet of a samariatan by Manny Ohonme.

Let me know of  some of your goals and I hope it includes the help from the GURU and the Dana Rader Golf School.

Happy New Year  and God Bless,

Guru


2 thoughts on “A Time to Reflect and a Time to Look Ahead

  1. Guru,
    You have delivered to us a very impressive list of books and for those I have not read I look forward to doing so. At the Morepars.wordpress.com site (sorry for the shameless plug of my own blog ) I will also be writing in 2010 the importance of self development…of achieving MorePars in golf, business, and life.
    I have 2 immediate recommendations for you and your readers. In golf, get the Secrets of the Short Game by Phil Mickelson. Buy both the book and the DVD. Both are top-notch quality and have invaluable information. I will be covering these in detail in my blog. I hope every golf blog recommends these as I think we will be doing all golfers a favor by driving awareness of Phil’s advice.
    For books not related to golf but whose lessons can be applied to it, I recommend Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and Talent is Overrated, What Really Separates World Class Performers from Everybody Else by Geoff Colvin. I learned from Gladwell’s book about Colvin’s book. There is tremendously important advice on how to succeed in these books. I guarantee you and your readers, if they are serious about their success in golf, business, and life, will benefit from the lessons learned in these 2 books.
    Thank you for sharing this wonderful list and best wishes for successful 2010! I look forward to every one of your postings and look forward to reading and learning from many more in the coming year!

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    1. Thanks Morepars,
      your recommendations are greatly appreciated. I will definitely get those two books. As for Mickelsons dvds, I have see them and I find it interesting as I talk to students, amateurs that have seen the videos. I think they have some good information that can help some people but from a teaching standpoint it was pretty basic and happy to say very much how I teach the short game especially the pitching aspect (hinge and hold method). It is a very typical video of a tour player trying to teach what he does and assuming that the average player can do it. Make sure you discuss the importance of the body rotation throughout the pitching and chipping swing that allows you to create a flat lead wrist through impact. Phil just assumes that if you swing your hands and arms through the shot that your body will move and I can tell you that it doesn’t as you well know from working with me on pitching and your challenges with a broken left wrist. Great post and I look forward to your upcoming views from a passionate golfers standpoint. Happy New Year
      Jason

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