Lessons for life at Golf

When i first started playing golf, it would be quite frustrating. Select a club, line-up, a practice-swing and then the final swing. The club would go 'thud', hitting the ground and sending a huge chunk of turf flying and the ball would very reluctantly roll about ten yards before coming to a halt.
Thankfully over a period of time, one managed to earn the respect of the ball and it started travelling at least 50% of the desired distance. Yet it continued to exercise its own mind , because the direction was of its own choosing. But then that is what it turned out to be- a battle of minds. The ball's and mine.
Very soon it started obeying me with unfailing loyalty.
On the second hole i wondered if i would hit the ball into the trees to the left of the fairway. I banished this thought from my mind while i set up. Just as i was completing the back swing, the thought crept into my mind again. Most insiduously. Down came my club, up went the ball flying. What i had not realised that the ball had read my mind and did not want to disappoint me.So it went into the trees to the left of the fairway.
As i played more often, this story kept repeating itself. Into the water hazard on the 8th, into the trees or the water hazard, depending on what i thought on that day on the 13th, across the road on the 14th and so on.
I have not been able to establish the link between my mind and the ball, but it has happened. Again and again.
Then i thought, if the ball can go to the wrong places when i think of it, it should go to the right places too.
Let me try thinking of the right places for the ball to go. I would think of the ball landing right in the centre of the fairway or flying over a water hazard to land on the green. Lo and behold! It started happening that way. And now i am practising thinking like this more often.
When i came across Rhonda Byrne's 'The Secret' , i could draw astonishing parallels between what she has written about positive thinking and my experiences at the golf course.
It is all about the power of the mind. A very important lesson for life that i have learnt at golf.