The lens through which we see the world – our paradigms – are shifted through adversity. We’ve all seen it happen the hard way. There must be an easier way to catalyze and accelerate personal growth. There is. There are many, I’m sure. But one is unique in its nature. To Jim Collins’ question, what if there was in fact a key that could unlock that black box of inner development, shifting your perspective and gaining that sense of humility and awe toward life without having to endure personal trauma or calamity? Who wouldn’t want to live life with as much insight, perspective and wisdom as you can get? What if one of the keys available to pick the lock on that black box of inner development was wrapped inside a game – a game that could change your life in the same way that an earth-shaking catastrophe might? Further, what if that game could reveal to you the innermost secrets about yourself and others and provide a new outlook to how you approach life forevermore. There is, and it’s called Golf. Now don’t get me wrong – I’m convinced that there are many “keys” all around us everyday, if we simply look for them. They’re everywhere. But with golf, you don’t have to look for the key – it will find you. It’s like a burglar trying to pick the lock to your inner soul – grabbing you by the hair and forcing you to look in the mirror at who you really are, and to come to grips with it. And as painful as that sounds (and it is), it’s a blessing, not a curse. An opportunity to cut through the suits of armor we all tend to hide inside of, and to be set free. And the price of admission doesn’t have to be the bi-product of a catastrophe or crisis beyond a triple bogie or a duck hook into the pond. You see, that’s the power of golf. It creates a mini-crisis or calamity of sorts in your life. Lots of them actually. Relentlessly, and without regard for how talented a golfer you are. Mark O’Meara, on of the game’s truly elite players, once joked on his way to winning the 1998 Masters, one of golf’s ultimate contests, that he’d hit a poor iron shot and was beating himself up not just as a bad golfer but as a bad human being. It’s difficult to fathom being one of golf’s greatest players and yet having the game you’ve mastered constantly breaking you down, and in the midst of one of the sport’s greatest accomplishments. And although these crises are not life threatening, you have to wonder sometimes when you’re in the middle of it all, just as he did. And that’s the beauty and power of the game. You can embrace the wounds to your ego that the game inflicts on you – and be transformed by them. It will bring you to your knees in the same way that more critical crises will, and you can grow in the same way that you would from the real thing. If you’re willing, the twists and turns that golf throws your way can break you – in a healthy and even joyful way. It’s a matter of letting the game expose the real you, peeling off our masks and penetrating our bulky suits of armor, both meant to fool others and protect ourselves from the real us. Masks and protective armor don’t enhance life, they encumber it, and the reality and the power of golf makes this point easy to visualize. Throw on a suit of armor and let me know how it goes on the first tee. Golf isn’t a game to be played behind the protection of heavy metal. And neither is life. Both seem designed to play freely, loosely, and unencumbered.