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Taking the plunge It takes a brave, brave person to chuck it all to get better
I've made a huge, huge decision. A career-shaking decision. I am going to change the way I write. This is a big move for me because, really, there are a handful of people who actually like the way I do my job. My mom, for one. My wife. My boy. My boss, at least every 18th try or so. And, in fact, I've done OK with this style -- if that's what you want to call it. I spell almost everything right, most of the time. I hardly ever make what you would call any major mistakes. And if I tick off some people once in a while ... well, it's like my old journalism professor used to tell me. "If everybody loves you," he barked through the cloud of cigar smoke and beer belches, "then you're probably doing something wrong." Things are good around here. Maybe too good. I'm too comfortable. I want to get better. So I'm starting over. I'm going to learn how to interview sports figures again so I can reach deep into their subconscious and pull out something -- something -- worth writing about. I'm going to chuck out that old dog-eared copy of Cliches for Sportswriters that has served me so well all these years and think up new cliches. I will be thoughtful and witty and insightful. I won't split infinitives. I'll be worth reading. I will vow never, ever again to take ridiculously cheap shots at John Rocker. I will be a new man. I'm going to need help with this new way of doing my business, of course. Nobody can make a major career-changing move like this without some support. I'll need somebody to show me the way back once I've scrapped everything that I've ever known. It's like The Matrix, you know, when Keanu Reeves discovers he's not really who he thinks he has been all his life and he comes out of that cocoon-looking thing with slime all over him and that cable stuck in the back of his head. I need somebody like Laurence Fishburne to lead me out of this scary netherworld. I need Tiger Woods. You don't just chuck away a comfortable way of making a living, throw all your clubs into the lake at the 18th and re-work your whole way of doing things, not without someone who has been there before. Tiger knows where I'm coming from. The world's greatest golfer -- and that's no cliché -- had the Titleists to change the best game in the game and start over just because he wanted to get better. So he shortened his arm swing as he takes the club back. He learned to control that whippish downswing. He even turned conservative in his shot selection, when the time called for it. Brave? If you've ever tinkered with your golf swing, even the slightest change, you know how dangerous that can be. When you do something that radical, the downside can be steep. Scary, scary steep. Tiger could have completely screwed up his swing. He could have struggled for years with no assurances of ever getting back to where he was. He could have morphed from the sport's next great golfer to just another splash in the pond. Tiger Woods could have become David Duval. Instead, he has painted over the Mona Lisa and come up with a Picasso. He started out with Beethoven and now has Mozart. Tiger's taken his Value Meal and Super-Sized it, all right? Yeah. I'm going to do it. I'm pulling a Tiger. Except ... I don't know. I'm thinking no now. Noooo way. What was I thinking about? What if I can't get better? What if I try, and I can't even get back to where I was? I'm not going to risk everything I have for some pie-in-the-sky ideal. No way. Not in a million years. That's great for you, Tiger. Way to go. Good luck in the PGA this week. Me? I'm staying put. John Donovan is a senior writer for CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer. Comments? To e-mail Donovan, click here.
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