Page 414 - Deception at work all chapters EBook

Golf and the Cunning Plan 415

If you catch him in a small lie, three things will be achieved. The first is that he will be more
careful in the future. Secondly, he is moved towards the role of an Adaptive Child and thirdly
you have deprived him of the anxiety-relieving balm obtained through rampant rabbiting.

Challenge deception

PLAYING YOUR OWN GAME

You must NLP yourself to play positively. This is easy if you have rehearsed properly. Don’t just
aim vaguely down the middle of the fairway or at the green but concentrate on hitting on the
line of a specific leg of a specific spider on a specific branch of a specific tree 300 yards away,
or whatever, but always slightly further away than you actually want the ball to land.

Make sure you don’t fall short of your target

Golf is easy if you commit to hitting on the right line and really focus. If you are a bit nerv-
ous, take a few deep breaths, concentrate on the opponent and consciously take on board his
non-verbal communications. If you focus on his nerves, yours will disappear.

If you feel anxious, concentrate deeply

Programme yourself to ignore bunkers, water, rough and all that stuff and think positively,
concentrating on microscopic targets. But if you hit a bad shot, don’t worry: that’s life and
you can quickly recover. The art is not to make the same mistake twice and never, ever, laugh
at yourself or make self-deprecating proclamations. Pretend you are a Buddhist or someone
else, possibly a lawyer or an accountant, with massive inner serenity.

Success is all about commitment

To get back to the evil of putting … have you noticed that when you are on holiday in Bene-
dorm and your wife says, ‘How about a go on the crazy putting green?’ she always wins, sink-
ing monster putts from flower beds, up trees and from old ladies’ hats. Serious golfers know
that putting is really tough and another intervention by the Devil, who reduced the diameter
of the hole from God’s design of 12 feet to 2 centimetres. That’s the way it is and you just have
to live with it but you can NLP yourself to routinely sink any putt of under 40 feet.

The way you do this is to talk to the ball and tell her that she really wants desperately go
down the hole: that there are cream muffins with jam down there and a branch of Harrods. If
you can get the ball on your side: job done.

NLP is a vital tool

CHALLENGE DECEPTION

If you discover your opponent cheating, you must immediately let him know you have noticed
with a direct confrontation: