Getting Unstuck

Getting Unstuck

Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.

2 Timothy 2:15

Every serious golfer looks forward to the Masters Tournament about this time of year. It’s held in Augusta, Georgia, where the winner is awarded the prestigious green jacket that must be returned to the clubhouse a year later. Tickets for the Masters are very difficult to come by, but it’s been televised on CBS every year since 1956. Former winners include Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Tom Watson, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, and Arnold Palmer. But one well-known professional golfer has never been a serious contender at the Masters. Why? If you ask him, he’d say it was his putting.

Chi Chi Rodriguez, who was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, has long lamented his poor putting. “If I could putt, you would’ve never heard of Arnold Palmer,” he’s been known to say. But Rodriguez wasn’t always a poor putter. There was a time in his early career when he was a great putter. What happened?

“I never knew what I did putting,” Rodriguez said. “I just knew that there was a hole, there was a ball, there was a putter, I was supposed to knock the ball in the hole. But then a magazine paid me $50 to figure out what I did putting, and I haven’t putted good since.”^a

So what happened to Chi Chi’s putting? Overthinking happened to it, that’s what. Actually, it happened to his mind, and that’s what threw his putting out of whack. How do we know? Because a group of scientists who’ve been studying the “paralysis of analysis” have shown that thinking too much impacts everyone’s performance. Golfers are an easy example. Too much analysis makes their game worse. Neuroscientist Michael Anderson of St. Andrews University in Scotland says the loss of performance in nearly any area is due to an effect called verbal overshadowing. This occurs when we activate the language centers of our brain, and in a sense, overload them when we need to be accessing other areas with our brain that give us new perspectives.

So here’s our question for you as a couple (whether you golf or not): What are you overthinking? Is something causing paralysis of analysis in your relationship? Whatever the issue, if overthinking is making matters worse, we have a suggestion: next time you catch yourself obsessing about an issue, think simply. Do you really need to run those thoughts through your head? Can you instead just focus on one thing you can do to solve the problem, or one positive truth about your spouse? Simple thinking really does relax the tension and make your relationship easier. In short, it gets you unstuck.

I don’t fear death, but I sure don’t like those three-footers for par.

—Chi Chi Rodriguez

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