“Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.”

– André Malraux

During my freshman year of high school golf a minor controversy erupted.* One of the older kids was allegedly seen cheating on a hole. Unfortunately, due to a lack of substantial evidence, he wasn’t punished. Aside from spending the rest of the school year as “the guy who cheated” nothing bad happened to him. He didn’t get kicked off the team, or die in a car wreak, or suffer from whatever other justices the universe is supposed to deal. Instead he’s still alive and doing well, exploiting easy routes suffering no repercussions.

One time I was partying with a girl and we got into a conversation about luxury items. She said something about never having to buy any of her clothes or jewelry or expensive alcohol, because there was always some dude willing to foot the bill. No flesh eating bacteria has left her disfigured, guys haven’t stopped paying her way, and she hasn’t died in a freak explosion. Karma hasn’t punished her, and probably never will.

There are thousands “average guys” who never get ahead. They put in their eight hours, do exactly as their told, and still don’t see any major rewards. Granted they aren’t suffering, but at best they’ll waste their entire lives to achieve nothing more than a decent paying job in a pretty good city. The ghost of Frank Capra isn’t going to slip them a winning lottery ticket, or give them a surprise inheritance simply because they showed up to work almost every day for fifty some years.

On any given Saturday night there are hundreds of thousands of men staying in to follow their dreams. Building businesses, programing, studying the economy, writing books, and doing countless other unglamorous tasks. They’re the type of guys who become “surprise” successes, going from nobodies to household names. But they didn’t do it overnight like everyone else assumes. They were hustling while the guy who always takes the easy route bailed from work at quarter to five. They were struggling and and toiling while the gold diggers were all Instagramming their free drinks. And they were finalizing their products and honing their skills while Joe average was shoving down IHOP pancakes with his obese children and diabetic wife.

There is no such thing as karma, only hard work.

*Details are not 100% accurate, due to the author’s shoddy memory.

“Suddenly Star Wars came out while we were on hiatus, and we looked like the old Buck Rogers series, where they had cigarette smoke blowing out the back of the rocket ship.”

– Gregory Harrison

Until last weekend I hadn’t hit a golf ball in two years. After high school golf ended I quit the sport. At the time I was too frustrated with the game and decided it wasn’t fun anymore.

I’d make a mistake and it would drive me into an unfocused rage. I’d watch dozens of YouTube videos on stance and swing, and they would leave me more uncertain than I had been before. The combination of conflicting information and frustration made me pack up my clubs and seal them away for good. Or so I thought…

At the beginning of this month, I decided that I should start golfing again. The weather’s nice and I figured that playing a sport would be a great way to relax and unwind after several stressful months.

Before I dusted off my clubs and went out to hit some practice balls I made it a point not to watch any golf videos or read any golf related books. I wanted to see how bad I would initially be, and improve from there.

What happened shocked me. Almost every shot I took was fantastic. During the time I didn’t play, I’d actually improved at the game.

Of course this wasn’t some magical occurrence. I hadn’t “grown into” being a better golfer. In fact, I’d been passively improving my skills the entire time. All the weights I’d lifted had made me stronger and able to hit the ball farther. While my new found focus on maintaining a positive attitude and thinking successfully kept me from having a meltdown whenever I didn’t get exactly what I wanted.

If you want to improve at something, you’ll sometimes need to find an unconventional route to do so.