Mulligan Month

Hello, fall! I don’t know how you all feel about it, but it seems like September snuck up on me! 

For years, I have looked at September as my mulligan month. The first time I heard the term mulligan was during one of my beginning attempts at golf back in the ’90s. As you can imagine, I was terrible. I was golfing with friends, and they were so kind. They kept telling me to take a mulligan…a do-over. Believe me, I took a lot of those that day…and during many golf games after that.

Over the years, I started applying the term to situations where I had set a goal but come up short…and had decided to allow myself the grace of a do-over. September has now evolved into my mulligan month. Those New Year’s goals and aspirations that came up short? They go in the mulligan pile. Things that seemed so important to me in January? Some of them are no longer important enough to even make it to the pile. Others have evolved over eight months into things that are barely recognizable as the goals set in January. And the meaningful and significant ones that are left? It’s mulligan time!

“Always keep in mind that if God didn’t want a man to have mulligans, golf balls wouldn’t come three to a sleeve.” — Dan Jenkins

Cutting myself slack for falling short on a goal is a response that took me quite some time to learn. I am very fortunate that my husband, Manny, helped me overcome this challenge. He helped me learn that if we come down hard on ourselves when we make a mistake, or when things don’t turn out like we think they should, all it does is slow our process. Mistakes are the way we learn, the way we grow. 

One of my favorite historical figures is Thomas Edison. He was a fascinating human being who held 1,093 U.S. patents. Imagine that! I believe that his positive approach to life, his tenacity, and his sense of humor must have carried him through many failures and challenges.

There is a story of him in 1914, when his laboratory and factory were burning to the ground. His response? He told his son, “Go get your mother and all her friends. They’ll never see a fire like this again.” On another occasion, he was being interviewed about the lack of results on an invention. His response? “Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won’t work.” And the one that most of us are familiar with: “Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” I would love to have known him!

This September, cut yourself some slack and join my mulligan month. I promise you, it will put a smile on your face!