At the age of 50 years of age, Phil Mickelson won his 6th major championship in golf, becoming the oldest person to ever win a major championship. He hadn’t won one since 2013. Most thought his time had past. And, for all intensive purposes, they should have been right. As you get older, the body loses muscle and flexibility. It’s why you don’t see 50 year old basketball, football or tennis players at the professional level. At some point, even the best athletes can’t compete against the highly conditioned 20 or 30 year olds playing the same game. Heck, I just finished writing about Wayne Gretzky, the greatest hockey player of all time and he called it quits at age 39 because he knew that it was becoming more and more difficult to compete against the next bigger, stronger, faster generation.
However, there is an important lesson to be learned from Phil’s victory. He found ways to compensate for his aging body. He changed his eating habits. He ate healthier foods and began fasting 36 hours each week. He developed a workout regimen that built strength and provided greater flexibility. As a result, Phil hits the ball just as far or further today than he did when he was in his 30’s. Next, Phil has said that he was having trouble focusing on every shot over 4 days in a tournament. So, he took deliberate steps to walk slower, control his breathing and spend more time visualizing every shot.
So, What’s Phil’s Lesson: Full disclosure, Phil is my all time favorite athlete. I have been watching him play since I was a junior in college. I am also 51 so I might see more relevance in this story than you do at the age of roughly 16. However, the lesson is still there. Phil located his weaknesses and found solutions to overcome them. When others dismissed him as over the hill, he surrounded himself with a team who believed in him. He kept trying to find solutions, and at least for one weekend, he beat the best athletes from all over the world at his chosen sport.
Your Turn: What lesson do you take away from Phil’s victory this weekend?
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The lesson I learned from his story is that if you want some thing you have to work for it. As an athlete you always have to prove yourself in practice to succeed in meets or games.
If you are willing to put in the work you will see positive results. It might not be a PGA Championship or an MVP type season but you will preform better because you prepared to be successful
I take away from this how he adjusted his game to keep improving, he didn’t just decide to give up but he saw the weaknesses and fixed them. He didn’t let anyone else tell him he was to old, he ignored the world and got better anyways.
Don’t give up
That if you surround yourself with people who believe in you, and identify and fix your weaknesses, you can improve beyond your belief
I take away the fact that you have to be mentally there and believe in yourself that you can do things. Set your goals high but accomplish even higher. There is always room to improve and you have to know that failure is gonna happen but just keep pushing.
Phil didn’t stop just because everyone expected him to stop. He seemed to have taken it as a challenge and used it to work harder than ever to show that he is still one of the best players out there. The lesson I took away is to use past failures/disappointments and the words of others (both positive and negative) as fuel to get better.
He was able to discover his weaknesses and was able to work on making them better. He also believed in himself and was able to win a championship.
He was able to find his weaknesses and was able to build on them and make them stronger.
Being able to use get one will help to become a better athlete and person
If you surround yourself in people who will help you achieve your goal and if work hard enough you can achieve anything no matter how old you are.
My take away is that you must be able to handle adversity no matter what , you have to be able to overcome those challenges and keep pushing yourself as an athlete
There’s always a way to improve yourself and what you do
Phil started to focus more and Believe in himself and had others Believe in him. And got to new heights
If you have a goal in mind, it is achievable with focus and determination.
At any age you can still accomplish things even when you think you can’t.
What I get out of this is that you need to know where you are as a competitor and staying within your abilities and making the best of what you can do.
I learned a better diet can affect your performance
He improved his diet to improve his performance
Always put yourself in a good place and if some things your doing don’t work, try something else that might help. You always have to adapt to what is happening to you and your body.
U have to work for what u want, don’t expect things to come naturally.
I take away that it’s never too late to succeed as long as you put in the work and surround yourself with people who believe in you.
I take away that it’s never too late to succeed as long as you put in the work and surround yourself with people who believe in you. Also there will always be people that doubt you.
Never give up and you got this!
Phil knew he could become better, so he did. His mentality changed his reality.
This lesson really helped me think about my changes and when my body changes I need to learn to adapt to that and push myself no matter what.
Never give up. Work hard for what you want!
This shows everyone’s ability to overcome adversity and prove people wrong.
Things are not handed to you, you have to work hard for what you get. If you don’t try it will show in the end.
This shows that you never stop learning and improving
I learn that if you surround yourself with the right people who will push you to do better and believe in you, that you can make things happen.
Phil was able to persevere and work hard to get what he wanted. He didn’t let “norms” get in the way and pushed himself to be his best.
The lesson I took away was that if you want to win something or get something done, you have to keep working hard at it and never give up. I also took away the fact that your mentality plays a big part to your race or whatever you want to do. It you want to get something done, you have to keep a positive attitude.
I think this article is truly inspiring how he came back from that injury
The lesson I took away from this is to adapt and overcome new obstacles that may come in your way of success. For Phil, it was his age and he changed his habits for the better. Living the healthiest and best you can is a crucial step to success as well.
That no matter what if u work hard at something and make changes u can do anything. All u have to do is work hard and never give up.
The lesson I learned was that you have to adapt to your competition. If you want to be consistently good at your sport you need to adapt and take care of yourself.
Obstacles are just another brick in the road if you approach them the right way.
I learned that no matter what happens to you and if you are having a rough patch, that you can always persevere.
If you surround yourself with people who believe in you, you can do anything.
What I learned is that you have to work for what you want and have supportive people around you. Also, push through all the obstacles that get in your way.
I learned that if you put worth the effort to achieve your dreams some will come true. It takes dedication to win a golf championship and it doesn’t matter your age if you just work hard at it
I learned that if you put worth the effort to achieve your dreams some will come true. It takes dedication to win a golf championship and it doesn’t matter your age if you just work hard at it
You need to work hard for what you love. Your age doesn’t matter if you word hard and give it your all.
You need to put so much work in for what you want in sports. Whatever your goals are u need to train practice and be the best you can be always
if u adjust to what u need you will be more likely to be able to compete so train how you want to perform
Never give up and have an open mind
The lesson I learned from this is that if you really want something you have to put your all in and work hard to get there.
I was taught that even if I have a weakness I have to find a way to work harder and overcome it.