Golf is a fascinating game.

I've been learning about it recently, and several things have come as a surprise to me. First of all, the game is much more physical than it looks. After you've taken a few good swings at the ball, you might find yourself gasping for breath. It takes a toll on you in a way that may not immediately be obvious to observers. Until I started educating myself about the game, I was one of many people who saw it as a pastime for lazy, retired rich people with pot bellies and too much time on their hands. One golf lesson was all it took to change my mind.

In fact, that golf lesson taught me a great many things about life as well. The first, and most important thing I learnt was that in golf, as in life, there are no practice shots. Once the game begins, every touch of the ball counts towards your final score, so each drive, each putt is taken seriously. You apply all your skill, all your knowledge, all your experience into every single swing, because if you get it wrong, nobody will give you the chance to come back and take the swing again.

Life is exactly the same, although we often forget this. We forget that this life is not a rehearsal. It is the main event. We are not practicing for some future performance. This is it. 

We all had dreams and aspirations when we started out. We were going to be rich, famous and influential. We were going to make a difference to humanity. After a while, life conspired to divert us from our chosen paths. That's normal - it happens - but the real tragedy occurs when we never try to find our way back onto the paths we deviated from. We make all kinds of excuses for our failure to resume the pursuit of our goals. We blame family, finances, health, education(or lack of it), anything to explain why we are not living our dreams while others are. 

And we keep lying to ourselves that we have time. "Oh, I'm not yet 40. That's when life begins. Let me just stay in this boring job that is sucking away chunks of my soul every single day, for a while longer, until I have enough money, or until the kids are older, or until I get that promotion, or until I lose 20 kilograms…" We think we have time. 

Well, life is not a rehearsal. It's the real thing. So if you are not doing what you want to do, well you're wasting your own very limited time. You're not going to get the chance to go back and do it right, so for the love of God, do it right now!

You have no excuse for making excuses. If you need money, start making it now. If you need qualifications, enrol this year. Make a move, Do whatever it takes to get back on that path you departed from, because nobody hits a target unless they aim at it.

My name is Kojo Yankson, and in life, as in golf, there are no second chances, so live each day like it's the only one you've got left, and put all you've got into each swing of the club.

 

GOOD MORNING, GHANAFO!