Every one of us wears many hats. The ones that sit atop my head include Golf Professional, Teacher, Little Moe, Entrepreneur, husband, partner, brother, etc. (In various order depending on the day).

I love the days where I can take all of the hats and have what my significant other calls “Todd Time.” Todd time is where I get to focus my mind where I decide not where my responsibilities demand.

Sometimes I head to Starbucks and have a coffee. I like just to sip my late as the people come and go. I like to be the fly on the wall and just observe. I enjoy the mixture and ironic quality of the solitude and activity.

Interestingly, if I practice, it is usually after dark when the range is closed.  I open the academy doors and hit balls into the moonlight. After daylight hours is the only time the academy is quiet enough to avoid distraction.

“Todd Time” is quiet time. It’s my way of putting the stresses of the world aside and diving inside myself so that I can find some peaceful moments. It’s meditation.

I often ask you if you are like me and enjoy practicing, but the method seems like another word for a chore. What I mean to ask is:

Do you use practice as a meditation? 

Here is poem, written by Paul Bertholy that Moe would often recite to me.

What is Happiness?

Golf is happiness,

for happiness is achievement. 

The father is motivation.

The mother is encouragement.

The fine golf swing is truly achievement.

Man may lie, steal and cheat for gain, but that will never gain a golf swing.

To gain a golf swing, man must work.

Yet it is work without toil.

It is exercise without the boredom.

It is intoxication without the hangover.

It is stimulation without the pills.

It is failure, yet its success shines even more brightly.

It is frustration, yet it nourishes patience.

It irritates, yet its soothing is far greater.

It is futility, yet it nurtures hope.

It is defeating, yet it generates courage.

It is humbling, yet it ennobles the human spirit.

It is dignity, yet it rejects arrogance.

Its price is high, yet its rewards are richer.

Some day it is a boy’s pastime, yet it builds men.

It is a buffer for the stresses of today’s living.

It cleans the mind and rejuvenates the body.

It is these things and many more for those of us who know it and love it.

Golf is truly happiness.

Practice isn’t a chore. Many of you who wrote me said that you like to practice as much as you like to play.

Here is what I suggest. If you use practice like meditation, exercise can give you joy. If training gives you joy and peace, then suddenly you are improving and having fun doing it.

For now, let’s change the word practice into and substitute it with “Golf Meditation” or maybe “Moeditation”.

Right now I’m going to go Moeditate at Starbucks.