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Have you ever looked at someone succeeding in your field and wondered whether you’re doing it all wrong? Maybe their approach looks more polished, more visible, more conventional. Maybe they seem to be playing the game the way the game is supposed to be played, and you’ve been wondering whether your own route, your own pace, your own way of doing things, is ever actually going to get you there? I’ve been there. And this week, an unlikely source reminded me of something important. I’m not a massive golf person, but I love what elite athletes reveal about life when you look closely enough, and what happened last Sunday at one of the sport’s biggest annual championships gave me the reminder I needed. An unlikely champion Aaron Rai, a 31-year-old from Wolverhampton, England, won the PGA Championship last Sunday. Think of this as reaching the very summit of your profession in a field that includes some of the most recognised names in the world. He was not the favourite and nobody had him down as the man most likely to win, yet he beat Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele with three shots to spare. When the final putt dropped and the crowd erupted, Aaron’s response was to wobble slightly, look a little lost, and then turn to the man beside him, take off his cap, and offer a handshake. No roar, no fist pump, just a man being exactly who he has always been. Aaron has a few quirks that have always set him apart from the field. He wears two gloves instead of the standard one. He puts protective covers on each of his clubs, something almost no professional does. His father, who immigrated to England from India and sacrificed his own sporting dreams to invest everything in his son, instilled habits and values in Aaron from an early age that were entirely their own. Some in the sport raised eyebrows over the years. Aaron never changed a thing. When he won, Xander Schauffele said: “He’s always in the gym, always on the range. He puts the work in when nobody’s looking.” Rory McIlroy added: “You won’t find one person here who’s not happy for him.” Not one person, from the entire field he had just beaten. His story carries three lessons worth bringing into our own life and work. 1. Stay in your lane Aaron’s father kept him away from the wider junior circuit when he was growing up, which meant he never developed a strong sense of what the normal path through the sport was supposed to look like. He built his game from the inside out, and by the time he was competing at the highest level, those foundations had taken hold too deeply to question. “I felt strong enough in why I did certain things,” he said after winning. “I knew the reasons. I believed in the reasons. So I had no reason to shift.” His quirky habits weren’t the reason he won, but they are a symbol of something deeper: a man who never felt the need to become someone else in order to succeed in this dream. 2. Your route doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s The mistake many of us can find ourselves making is assuming that the most visible path, the one being taken by the loudest voices in our space, is the only legitimate one. So we start adjusting, sanding down the edges of what makes us original, adopting approaches that don’t fully fit because they seem to be working for someone else. There is real wisdom in learning from others and staying open to what the world can teach you, but at some point you have to come back to yourself and ask what the most authentic route looks like for you, because that is almost always the most powerful one. 3. Put the work in when nobody’s looking Aaron Rai did not become a major champion overnight. He spent years building his game largely unknown to the mainstream sporting world, chipping away round after round, session after session, in gyms and on driving ranges that most people will never see or care about. And then one Sunday, with the whole world watching, all of it showed up. Excellence is rarely built in the spotlight. It is built in the background, in the repetition, in the willingness to keep doing the work without an audience and without the guarantee of recognition. My own seven years Aaron’s story hit closer to home than I expected. I’ve been doing this work for seven years, coaching, writing, building, and there have been real moments where I questioned whether I was going about it the right way. Whether I needed a bigger social media presence, or whether I should be doing the things everyone else in this space seems to do. I’m very unusual in how I’m going about this – I feel like I don’t want to take short cuts, I value quality over speed, and I like to make sure I put integrity above the pay check and for a long time that felt uncomfortable. I certainly let opportunities slip by because of this and have been slower than others. Only now am I beginning to see what that consistency can build, still a long way to go…but Aaron reminded me this week to stay faithful to my own lane and trust that the work nobody sees is the work that eventually builds everything. The world will keep offering you evidence that your path needs to look a certain way, louder, faster, more like someone else’s. But Aaron Rai spent years putting in the work nobody saw, in his own way, without needing the fanfare, and then one Sunday, everyone saw. Your way is enough. Your lane is enough. Keep doing the work. Reflection question If you trusted your path completely, what noise would you stop listening to and what work would you double down on? Jaineel P.S Here are 4 ways I can support your journey: 1) Join our next Connected Leadership Experience on Wednesday 27th May 5pm-6:30pm BST – A light touch intimate online circle where you uncover of your truth with other growth minded professionals. Only 3 spaces remaining. Details and application here. 2) 📓 Journal with Jaineel 7 Day Experience for Free – 7 days, 10 minutes a day. One prompt. Start your journaling here. 3) 🧘 Download my free guided meditation – 20 minutes to calibrate your energy and shift your state. Remember: you don’t attract what you want, you attract who you are. Download the free meditation here. 4) 📞 Let’s talk – If you’re ready to do this work 1:1 or in a group setting, book a call with me here. |
