Who’s your harshest critic when it comes to your game? If you didn’t answer, “Me!”, you need to adopt that position. Awareness of your strengths and weaknesses is one of the keys of achieving and maintaining success.

I’ve mentioned many times the importance of keeping a checklist on your game and process. I’ve done this my entire career. I have notebooks filled with information and checklists, so I have something to look back at when my game slumps. And every player goes through slumps, from top players down to amateurs. If you don’t keep a printed checklist, you’re actually sabotaging your game. You’ll have no way of knowing what you’re doing wrong. When that happens, you begin to doubt yourself. And that will have an even more negative effect on your game.

Players normally go through swings in success, sometimes over long periods of time and sometimes during a single match. And on some occasions, bouncing back can be the result of sometime as simple as getting mad at yourself and forcing yourself to focus. The most difficult thing is to have laser focus from the very start of a match and through its entirety. Of course, sometimes that bounce back starts too late in a match to change its outcome.

That’s why a checklist is so important. It can help you start faster out of the gate. The best way to find out what you’re doing wrong quickly is to have that checklist. And here’s the thing: If you have a checklist that you constantly consult, it becomes ingrained in your head. You don’t have to stop mid-match and pull a notebook out of your pocket. Over time, you can visualize the list because you’ve looked at it so many times.

Another key to utilizing the checklist is to recognize your mistakes as soon as possible. Don’t compound your problems by making the same mistake over and over again. That’s what I mean about being your own toughest critic. Don’t neglect your mistakes. Not acknowledging them is as bad as making them in the first place.

The old saying, “You only get out of something what you put into it,” is true. Without working on your weaknesses, how can you expect a different result? Not addressing problems results in coming up on the same shot or situation and then thinking, “Oh, no. Not this shot again!” I’ve seen that look on players’ faces a million times.

When I’m practicing and I miss a shot, I immediately stop and consult my checklist to see what went wrong. Then I make my adjustments and shoot the shot again and again. When that shot comes up in a match, I’m prepared and confident.

Take the time to create a checklist right from the start. It will pay dividends all the way along.