It is important to keep fun in your golf game, because people do what they want to do. It you're having fun at the range, you'll want to go; it will no longer be a chore. It's also important to keep your enthusiasm up, and to do this you need to keep your eye on the bigger picture - your overall improvement, your overall game, your goals - thereby creating a sense of excitement and anticipation. These emotions of excitement, anticipation, and fun are what keep you going. It's your expectations which keep you going.

Have you noticed that a lot of professionals seem to reach their goals and then just seem to disappear off the radar? What's Duval done since he won the Open in 2001? Until that time he was generally in the running, and in all his interviews he made it clear his aim was to win a Major. Then he won his major. And then...what happened? It leads one to speculate that he hasn't really set a new goal for himself, or, if he has done, he doesn't believe he can achieve it; he doesn't expect to achieve it.

How you think about something creates an expectation in your mind and it is this expectation which will dictate what the outcome is. This is true about everything in life. You decide what you want to achieve but if you do not believe that it will materialize it won't. The formula for success in everything is to decide/ask for what you want to achieve, believe that it can be done/expect your desired outcome and then take action consistently towards that goal.

Duval set his goal to win a major and he expected to achieve that aim and therefore he did do so. It would appear that since then he either hasn't set major golfing goals OR doesn't have sufficient expectation/belief of achieving them.

And Duval's not the only one. Many professionals seem to win and then take a back seat. Perhaps they've reached a point where they've earned well and just want to enjoy life...But this presupposes that they no longer enjoy competitive golf. One thing for sure is that you won't win unless you enjoy the competition. Its one thing enjoying the game and playing good golf, it's quite another to enjoy the competition.

What are your expectations? As you stand on the tee what do you expect to happen? Do you expect the ball to fly down the middle of the fairway...or drift off into the trees? Do you expect to win the next pro-am you play in? Do you expect to earn well this year? The only way to succeed is to plan to succeed and enjoy your game and enjoy the competition and to expect to be the victor. That's a lot to ask for.

We all know what it feels like to hit a point where despondency takes over. The fun and enthusiasm dissipates and your goals seem to be getting further away from you instead of closer. How can you change your thoughts and your feelings in this type of situation? When you've lost your belief, lost your expectation, you are putting out a lot of negative energy and this negative energy works against you, creating a cycle of negative effect.

There are a couple of easy techniques which you can apply in this situation.

One option is to change the focus of your attention onto something completely different - distract yourself just as you would distract a child who has fallen and scraped their knee. Distract yourself and think of something nice and then at least the energy waves transmitted as a result of your thoughts are relaxed, calm, soothing and positive. The cycle of negative effect is immediately halted.

Another choice you have is to deliberately relax, maybe through meditation or by learning hypnosis through listening to hypnosis downloads, thereby creating a deeper sense of calm and peacefulness, allowing the energy waves which you are transmitting to become positive.

A third choice is to deliberately think of something really good, to refocus on the bigger picture and build up your positive expectations once again. You will probably find that you will only be able to do this once you have soothed and relaxed yourself via one or other of the first two techniques mentioned. The leap from dissatisfied and despondent to having a positive belief and expectation is usually too great for most people to muster without some form of stepping stone along the way.

It's up to you to create your emotional stepping stones...they don't just materialize out of no-where. So when you're feeling low, take the time to sooth and relax yourself, then reach for the best feeling thought you can believe in. Keep reaching then for more and more better feeling thoughts until your original goals are firmly fixed in your mind once again, aligned with a positive expectation to succeed.

As you use these simple techniques you will keep on top of your golf game and succeed in your goals.

Roseanna Leaton, specialist in golf hypnosis cds and hypnosis downloads.