I’ll be the first to admit it.
After our MPGA Fellowship with Cydney, I told myself I would finally commit to the “3 Good Things” challenge. Every night. No excuses. I would end each day by writing down three moments worth noticing, three gifts that often pass by quietly if you’re not paying attention. I started strong. Day one felt clean and hopeful, like the opening page of a fresh notebook. Then last night came… and I forgot. No reminder. No alarm. Just life moving faster than my intention.
This morning, I didn’t wake up with guilt. I woke up with awareness. As I sat with my Bible and let the morning quiet settle in, one word surfaced and refused to let go of me: obedience. Not the loud, dramatic kind. The quiet kind that shows up when no one’s watching. The kind that lives in repeatable choices, not emotional moments.
I realized something uncomfortable but freeing at the same time. I hadn’t failed at gratitude. I simply hadn’t finished building it into who I am yet. There’s a difference between wanting a habit and owning it. Wanting feels good. Owning requires form… and obedience.
One missed night doesn’t undo the work. What undoes the work is the decision to stop because of the miss.
Don’t Skip Twice.
In my world, whether it’s an athlete trying to rebuild confidence after a bad round or a leader trying to regain footing after a hard week, I teach a simple mental skill: don’t skip twice.
You will forget. You will mess up. You will drift. That’s part of being human. But discipline is not about being flawless. Discipline is about returning before you disappear from your own standard. Grace covers a stumble. Discipline stops a spiral. One missed day is a moment. Two missed days begin a pattern. And patterns write stories faster than emotion ever will.
There is evidence behind this. Martin Seligman’s research on well-being shows that daily gratitude shifts how your brain searches the world. In fact, the 3 Good Things Challenge that Cydney and I presented in our MPGA Fellowship this past Monday came from Dr. Martin Seligman himself.
Over time, the mind becomes quicker to notice what is good, not because life suddenly becomes easier, but because attention becomes sharper. Neurons that fire together, wire together. When you practice seeing the good, your mind gets better at finding it. Gratitude is not something you wait to feel before you act. You act first. Emotion follows direction. When you train your sight, your heart eventually follows your eyes.
Yesterday, I watched an interview that shook me in the very best way. Paige Bueckers shared a story about Kyrie Irving, describing the moment he tore his ACL right in the middle of competition. A moment that would derail a season, challenge a career, and threaten an identity tied to movement and mastery. And in that instant, flat on the floor with pain rushing through his body and uncertainty crashing into his future, he thanked God. Not later in the locker room. Not weeks into rehab. Right there, when nothing made sense. That didn’t happen by chance. That was trained. When pressure hits, you don’t rise to the occasion, you drop to your habits. Gratitude showed up for him in crisis because gratitude had been trained in calm.
Jump to 22:14 in the video to watch the moment.
That moment exposed something gentle but honest within me.
I admired discipline more than I had practiced it. I wanted fruit where I hadn’t tended roots. I spoke about gratitude, but I hadn’t yet woven it into my reflexes. And there’s something sobering about realizing you respect a principle you haven’t yet embodied. It’s like knowing the right play but never walking onto the field.
If you’re reading this with a quiet knot in your chest because you’ve started things and then stopped… or if you’ve promised yourself you’d change and then didn’t… hear this clearly: today still counts. Right now still counts. You are not late. You are not disqualified. You are invited back. Pick the pen back up tonight. Write three moments worth noticing. Not to prove anything. Not to perform. Just to return.
And if you already stumbled, don’t skip twice. Not out of shame. Out of respect for who you’re becoming. Out of belief that tomorrow deserves a better pattern than yesterday. Habit is not built in highlights. It’s built in ordinary evenings when nobody’s watching. It’s built when you choose again after forgetting.
God is not impressed by your streak. He’s drawn to your return. If Kyrie can thank God in agony, you can thank God with breath in your lungs and a blank page waiting for your words. Let tonight be your reset. Let tomorrow be your next rep. And when you forget, come back faster than you did last time.
Don’t chase perfection.
Practice presence.
Your Mental Coach,
Dr. Mat
P.S. I am so thankful to our graphic designer, Robyn Lawrence, who has been working so diligently on our new MPGA website. I can’t be more proud and thankful for this team. Check it out here if you haven’t seen it yet: www.mpgagolf.com