Understanding Tiger Woods
Monday, January 4, 2010 at 01:00PM Whenever another celebrity takes a fall as Tiger Woods is doing right now, there is this mad rush to diagnose the current victim of media bloodthirst. In this case, they're saying Tiger has a sex addiction, or a woman problem. Thankfully, some people are starting to talk about what it is like to be practically the only man of color in a white man's game.
But people are still missing what I think is the real issue, which is what happens when people spiral way up beyond their comfort zone. It's not just that Tiger excelled in a sport long dominated by the gin and polo set. You also have a person saddled with outrageous financial compensation, a real game-changer. The purse for golf championships exceeded $250 million during Woods' era. Add to this the relative lone-ranger like attitude Woods adopted and you have all this glory and no one - really - to bounce this off of. I am not saying Pity the rich athlete. I am merely saying that there is a thermostat inside of everyone and a self-sabotaging move was bound to emerge.
To really understand what is happening, you have to give Tiger a little more credit. If you asked him 15 years ago, "What kinds of things bring a superstar down?" he probably could have told you. I don't see Tiger as having a woman problem at all. What I imagine is that he had a problem with the heights he reached. I don't even think self-sabotage is the right way to understand it. When you consider his initial pleas to the press "I'm human - everyone makes mistakes." you have to wonder, perhaps this was his way to finally come back to earth.
So when you are trying to understand self-sabotaging behaviors in yourself, don't ask yourself what's wrong with you. Don't try to fix yourself. The real question is, "How do I keep my feet on the ground amidst all this potential success?"
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