From Struggles to Triumph: Tommy Fleetwood’s First Win
The road for Tommy Fleetwood from “one of the best players to have never won” to winning a PGA Tour Championship was one filled with struggle and doubt. As he put it:
“I’ve clearly got things wrong in the dying moments of tournaments, and I might have made the odd dodgy decision. I might have put the odd bad swing on it.”
Fleetwood racked up 30 top-5 finishes (including 12 top-3 finishes), but had never got it done until Sunday at East Lake.
Here’s how he describes the resilience it took to finally break through:
“I’ve had to be resilient in terms of…put myself back up there, get myself back in that position. No matter how many times it doesn’t go my way, no matter how many doubts might creep in. Think the right things, say the right things to yourself. Say the right things outwardly.”
Fleetwood shows us that though the road may be filled with struggle, disappointment, and, depending on your stature, public embarrassment — that with the right mindset and tools, you can achieve the thing you set out to accomplish.
Are you facing a struggle you want to alchemize into a triumph, much like Tommy Fleetwood was able to do? Then let’s turn to three lessons from three teachers:
- Put yourself out there (and dare greatly) from Brené Brown.
- Cultivate your mindset (and be gritty) from Angela Duckworth.
- Say the right things to yourself (AKA: be compassionate) from Kristin Neff Ph.D.
Put Yourself Out There (and dare greatly)
Brené Brown teaches us that we have to be willing to dare greatly. Winning every tournament you enter, or succeeding at everything you try would be nice, absolutely. But that's not how life works. You have to be willing to put yourself out there, again and again.
Here's how Brown puts it in Daring Greatly:
“Perfect and bulletproof are seductive, but they don’t exist in the human experience. We must walk into the arena, whatever it may be—a new relationship, an important meeting, our creative process, or a difficult family conversation—with courage and a willingness to engage. Rather than sitting on the sidelines and hurling judgment and advice, we must dare to show up and let ourselves be seen. This is vulnerability. This is daring greatly.”
What is it for you?
What are you willing to put yourself out there for? How will you dare greatly?
Getting clear on that is step one. Next, you'll need the mindset that can sustain you in your journey, you'll need grit.
Cultivate Your Mindset (and be gritty)
Showing up tournament after tournament after continuously just falling short requires grit.
Here's how Angela Duckworth, author of Grit, describes it:
To be gritty is to keep putting one foot in front of the other. To be gritty is to hold fast to an interesting and purposeful goal. To be gritty is to invest, day after week after year, in challenging practice. To be gritty is to fall down seven times, and rise eight.
Fleetwood's goal was clear. He kept daring greatly and investing time, energy, and heart until his breakthrough finally came.
What's your daily commitment?
If a "Dream Fairy" followed you around this week and your success was based on the consistency with which you applied yourself towards your goal, would they be excited to help make your dream happen?
Keep putting one foot in front of the other, keep showing up, and be gritty.
And since the road is often longer than we project, let's remember to...
Say the right things to yourself (aKA: be compassionate)
Fleetwood himself pointed to the importance of self-talk.
The process of daring greatly towards a big goal, and then showing up consistently and with a gritty mindset is not the easy path. That's why self-compassion is key.
As Kristin Neff describes it in her book Self-Compassion:
Self-compassion entails three core components. First, it requires self-kindness, that we be gentle and understanding with ourselves rather than harshly critical and judgmental. Second, it requires recognition of our common humanity, feeling connected with others in the experience of life rather than feeling isolated and alienated by our suffering. Third, it requires mindfulness—that we hold our experience in balanced awareness, rather than ignoring our pain or exaggerating it.
- Self-kindness.
- Common humanity.
- Mindfulness.
Quick check-in, how are you doing with each of these?
Combine self-compassion with grit and courage, and you'll have everything you need to keep moving forward.
Apply these lessons, stay committed to the course (golf or otherwise), and you can achieve your goal.
If you’re ready to put these tools into practice, Heroic is here to support you every step of the way.
Looking to go deeper into the big ideas covered in each of the books above? You can do that for free via these Philosopher’s Notes:
- Daring Greatly by Brené Brown
- Grit by Angela Duckworth
- Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff, Ph.D.
