One of the more difficult, but beneficial mental game techniques I’ve worked on over the years is the concept of non-judgement. Our brains automatically label everything as “good” or “bad” (and maybe “neutral”). Good swing, bad bounce, good speed, bad read. Take a second to mentally replay you’re last round and how many times you said or thought the words good and bad. It was probably a lot (I know it is for me).
Judgements themselves are not a “bad thing” and sometimes can feel beneficial, especially positive judgements, giving us energy and motivation. The issue comes if we let these judgements go unchecked as they become controlling. Based on our snap judgement, we’ll try to cling to the “good thing” we previously experienced, run away from the “bad thing”, and ignore anything deemed “neutral” even if it might be important. We try to tell ourselves to “swing it just like I did on 6” because that was a “good swing”, but the swing on 6 is finished and thinking about it just pulls us out of the moment we are in now. On the flip side, I think every golfer knows the result of trying to not make a “bad swing” and what that does to our mental state.
So what can we do? The brain makes these judgements automatically and it’s not something we can just “turn off” and we definitely can’t/shouldn’t just make everything neutral. Instead, it’s about changing what we do with the judgement, or really what we don’t do with them. The key is the ability to recognize the judgement as a temporary thought and then let it go. The good swing or bad swing has no real bearing on the next swing, so you can ground yourself in that new moment. Doing so will not only allow us to think more clearly about that shot, but also open up the mind to all the things that might have been deemed neutral before, but are really important in golf, like the wind/lie/etc. All together, this will probably make the odds of having a “good” round of golf that much better (although is there really a bad round of golf?)
@CoryO, I don’t know if I think it will lower your scores but it should definitely make the game more enjoyable for you, which should be the purpose of playing.
It’s timely (for me anyway) that you should mention the thought of “swing it just like I did on 6.” On Saturday I hit a great tee shot on 10, which calls for a 200 yard layup. The next hole is a 200 yard par 3, and I kept saying “make the same swing you did on 10” and then I proceeded to hit an awful shot. I had quite the chat with myself about not being able to make the same swing two holes in a row as I walked to my ball.
I wonder how much better off I would have been had I just focused on the shot instead of thinking about trying to replicate what I felt the previous hole.
This is MUCH easier to do in solo rounds. As I mentioned in another post, playing solo is almost meditative and judgement goes out the window for the most part. I find myself sometimes even laughing at bad shots, and then just moving on. Not comparing to previous rounds or previous results, but just focusing on the shot at hand.
This is more difficult in competition or in a group as there is a tendency to compare your shots to your partners, or to absorb their negative energy when they react to a bad shot. It’s a difficult balance to achieve peak performance and peak enjoyment simultaneously and something I will continue to search for.
Not to get too zen on all this, but IMO, golf swings are like snowflakes, similar but no two are ever going to be exactly the same.
As someone who plays almost all of my golf solo, but then played in the club championship over the weekend with a group, I entirely agree.
Thanks for clarifying. 
I’ve gotten much better at the let it goooo after a … uhhh … ummm … a could have been executed better shot 
I’ve started focusing more on my process and also started keeping a mental scorecard - and this has been helping!