On My Interpretation of Dreams

On My Interpretation of Dreams

I have two things in common with Sigmund Freud. I have a couch in my consulting room. And I ask people to tell me about their dreams. But there the resemblance ends. The couch is in my basement rec r0om, near the Grounds of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The picture frames above it hold not the psychoanalyst’s carefully neutral art by a print of golfer swinging a mid-iron and a flag from the 18th hole at Pebble Beach, signed by Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Tom Kite. A four-and-one-quarter inch putting cup sunk, into the floor, and a universal gym complete with decor. And no one lies on my couch. They sit, and we talk face to face. Freud believed dreams were a window into the subconscious mind. From them, he spun a web theory that, too often, boils down to a belief that people are the victims of circumstances beyond their control-of childhood traumas, parental mistakes, and instinctive impulses. But the dreams I ask about are no the ones that creep from the unconscious the night before. They are the goals and aspirations a golfer has been carrying around in his or her conscious mind.

The dreams I want to hear of excite some fortunate people from the time they wake up each morning until they fall asleep from the time they wake up each morning until they fall asleep at night. They are the stuff of passion and tenacity. They might be defined as goals, but goals so bright that no one need write them down to remember them. In fact, the hard task for the professionals I work with is not recalling their dreams, but occasionally putting them out of their minds and taking some time off from their pursuit of them. The dreams I want to hear about are the emotional fuel that helps people take control of their lives and be what they want to be. Time and again, I have heard stories of dreams that intimately connected to the ability to play great golf golf. In, fact, this is the first mental principle a golfer must learn.

A person with great dreams can achieve great things.

A person with small dreams, or a person without the confidence to pursue his or her dreams, has consigned himself or herself to a life of frustration and mediocrity.

Dr. Bob Rotella – Golf is not a Game of Perfect