There are three golf balls on the moon. How’d they got there? It was all because of astronaut Allan Shepard who thought a little harmless fun wouldn’t bother anyone in that empty floating cheese ball in space. A person’s single decision made the unimaginable, a reality.
Golf itself, if you watch it on TV, the first 10 minutes really isn’t what you would call entertainment. It consisted of details and intense focus from the players, all of which weren’t as entertaining to an average television enjoyer who would prefer a slam dunk rather than a clean downswing. However, it was this sport’s attention to detail that sparked the inspiring vision of Development Coach Thane Marcus.
Thane said that it was a sport that matched his stubbornness as a kid. Being competitive, he wanted to make the most of each play without having to rely on a team, coach, referees and anyone else but his talent and determination.
“It’s a bit naive and childish to think that that’s a good thing,” he said, “[but] the older you get, the more you realize you have to take full ownership for the failures just as much as the successes and so that’s really what gravitated me towards golf.”
Thane played golf up until college at the Master’s University in California, and four years professionally before moving on to teach people how to take ownership of their lives. Also the host of The Up & Comers Show, he shares ideas and inspiring stories from people who are being a leader to themselves.
He says golf and personal development invoke similar ideas, as the outcome is solely dependent on the individual. Golf requires training and being aware of his needs and strengths– which he says is necessary for our lives.
“We need to transfer from universal principles to individual principles,” Thane noted, “what works best for me? Based on how I’m wired, my strengths and weaknesses, and how I operate in different environments. That takes self-awareness.”
“Being a good leader always starts with being a good leader of yourself,” he added. For Thane, the best way to take charge of your life was to let go of what you can’t control, and instead, change how you perceive yourself in that situation.
Learning from Nassim Taleb’s book Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, he notes that our definition of fragile are objects that break when you shake the box, but when an object doesn’t break, it’s durable. He says the idea of antifragile is that when you shake the box, things get better.
We may be clinging on to the control of our environment and not realizing that we’re only holding ourselves back from being that best version of ourselves. For Thane, one needs to accept the constant that is ‘change’ and be open to its challenge.
“Never settle” a mantra of his, tells us that we are meant to achieve more– not just land on the moon, but maybe even over it.
More from Thane:
- Visit his website thanemarcus.com
- IG @thanemarcus
- Twitter @thanemarcus
- Facebook @thanemarcus
