After delivering a seminar for the PGA of Philadelphia, a gentleman walked up to me and said “Hi, I’m Dr. Howdy Giles. I was Arnold Palmer’s dentist.” Howdy, and I have been friends ever since and he was kind enough to introduce me to the King in April of 2016. On that memorable day, we asked Arnie what he thought about when standing over the ball, and his response was simple.

Nothing.

To condition yourself to think about nothing while standing over the ball, you must be highly disciplined. These three tips provide you with a dose of daily discipline so you can start thinking like a king today.

No. 1. Challenge Yourself Daily

This self-empowering activity is so much fun and highly motivating. Off the course, your Daily Challenge could be as simple as completing a task, starting a task, making that certain phone call or committing to one thing that will take you out of your comfort zone.

On the course, your Daily Challenge might be to visualize every shot, stay positive the entire round or to think about nothing while standing over the ball. Once you determine your Daily Challenge, it takes only 2 seconds to write it down. Writing it down makes you much more committed and self empowers you to achieve it. Every one of our golfers doing the Daily Challenge absolutely loves it, and I know you will too.

No. 2. Crush Your Morning and Evening Routine

If you want to take control of each day, physically change your path to get in and out of bed each day. The reason why is that 95 percent of what you do today is the same as what you did yesterday, which means you are on auto-pilot almost the entire day. By changing how you get in and out of bed, you create the perfect framework for constant improvement because you are in control of the very first thing you do each day, and the very last thing you do.

Total time required to reroute your path in and out of bed is about 1 second.

No. 3. Ask Yourself a Better Question

Did you know the quality of your life is only as good as the quality of the questions you ask yourself? The conversations you have in your mind must be focused on improvement, not on what’s wrong. The danger in asking yourself the wrong questions is that your subconscious mind will provide you with all the right answers to your wrong questions. You know that dreadful feeling of being stuck or frustrated and you have no clue how to improve? The reason why is your communication creates a perpetual road block with no chance for a detour. Asking the wrong questions makes it virtually impossible for you to succeed, in golf and in life.

If you ask yourself why you can’t perform under pressure or why your short game stinks, your subconscious provides you with a host of reasons why. By asking questions that start with “Why is it so easy,” everything changes instantly.

For example, say any of these questions out loud right now and see how they make you feel:

• Why is it so easy to make this putt?
• Why is it so easy to relax and be totally calm right now?
• Why is it so easy to think about nothing standing over the ball?

By constantly asking “why is it so easy,” you will feel more relaxed which equates to lower stress and less anxiety. Lowering your physical and emotional anxiety translates to better golf, and the best part about it is that asking a better question takes about 2 seconds!

In Extreme Ownership by U.S. Navy SEALs Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, they said something at the end that really caught my attention.

Discipline = Freedom

These three simple discipline tips will help you play your best and create freedom in your game, both on and off the course.

To recap:

1. Take the Daily Challenge (2 seconds)
2. Crush Your Morning and Evening Routine (1 second)
3. Ask a Better Question (2 seconds)