Book Review: Subject - Personal Development

Title: Extraordinary Golf - The Art of the Possible
Author: Fred Shoemaker with Pete Shoemaker
Publisher Perigee Books - The Berkley Publishing Group
ISBN: 0-399-52276-X

I know what you're thinking: Oh brother, not another book on how to play golf just like the pros do. Well, I thought the same thing when the book was given to me. That's why it sat in my pile of unread books for quite some time. (I'm not sure exactly when this book was given to me, but it was first published in 1997.)

Warning: This is not a golf book for golfers to learn how to swing it like Tiger or putt it like Ben (although the author, Golf Professional and Master Instructor Fred Shoemaker, did include some helpful tips on how to improve your swing). This is a book written by a golfer who discovered early on in his career that there is a connection between how you play the game of golf and how you play the game of life.

For the most part, the game of golf and the game of life are both played between the ears. "I started to think about the type of game that I myself would like to play, the one that would give me the most joy and satisfaction, which would enrich my life the most," writes Fred Shoemaker. It was those initial thoughts that started him on a journey which culminated in the publishing of this gem, Extraordinary Golf - The Art of Possible.

The more I read it, the more I realized that this book was more than just a golf instruction book. It became apparent to me that it was an instruction book on how to live your life. The comparisons between life and the game of golf are uncanny:

• The way you do anything is the way you do everything.
• No one can be taught anything unless he or she is ready and willing to learn.
• Extraordinary changes come from a new point of view - a new way of being.
• Extraordinary people live their lives backwards - they create a future and then live into it.
• If you run your life by who you are - a person of character - and accept what that gives you, I believe you will feel much joy and will experience much growth.
• Ordinary people simply live their past over and over again.
• Extraordinary is the result of a new point of view, which creates, in essence, a new person.
• Golf is not about courses, equipment, handicaps, or techniques. Golf is what happens to you when you play.
• Golf, as Art, recognizes the enormity of the potential of the moment. It is the realization that what could exist greatly exceeds what does exist, and it keeps each moment vibrant, alive and full of possibility.

If you replace the word golf with the word life, you'll see what I mean. Will this book improve your golf game? Maybe it will, and maybe it won't. But the one thing I know for certain is that how you play the game of golf or the game of life is 100% in your control. I recommend that you read this book. Dust off your clubs and get in the game! You never know, the game just might change your life.