If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.
John UpdikeRead
My golf is so delicate, so tenuously wired together with silent inward prayers, exhortations and unstable visualizations, that the sheer pressure of an additional pair of eyes crumbles the whole rickety structure into rubble.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the fragility of personal performance under scrutiny.
John Updike's quote highlights the vulnerability and the mental complexity involved in performing activities that require focus, such as golf. He conveys how external pressure can disrupt one's internal harmony, suggesting that our best efforts are often delicate and can easily be overwhelmed by the judgments of others.
Themes
PerformancePressureVulnerabilityGolfMindfulness
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in sports psychology seminars to discuss mental resilience.
More from John Updike
All quotes →Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of. _x000D_ _x000D_ Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings.
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Museums and bookstores should feel, I think, like vacant lots - places where the demands on us are our own demands, where the spirit can find exercise in unsupervised play.
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The reader knows the writer better than he knows himself; but the writer's physical presence is light from a star that has moved on.
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To guarantee the individual maximum freedom within a social frame of minimal laws ensures - if not happiness - its hopeful pursuit.
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