I Spent The Last Year Chasing My Dream, Here’s What I Learned

The mission of my channel is to challenge the idea that dreams die, to be brave enough to ask the question “what if?” My journey is with golf but yours may look different, and I feel that part of this channel needs to be me passing on what I’ve learned in the process of chasing my dreams.

If this is your first time here my name is Ben Utah (yes that is my real name, Ill make a video about it soon) and in 2023 I decided to reignite my childhood dream of playing professional golf. I played high school golf and then took 8 years off from the game while pursuing my two psychology degrees. I’d play a couple of times a year but never seriously until one day I was struck by the question, “what if I practiced, how good could I get in a year?” For the last year I’ve been practicing nearly every day in pursuit of the goal of going pro. I turned pro on May 2, 2024 but what I’ve been learning on this journey is far deeper than just golf. If that sounds interesting to you then hit that subscribe button to join the gallery and follow along!

if you’re new here my name is Ben Utah and I’ve spent the last year of my life chasing my childhood dream of playing professional golf we’re out here tonight to hit some practice bunker shots uh and in so doing we’re going to discuss a few things that I’ve learned in that year and a few things that I’d like to share with you guys if you plan to pursue your own dream we’re going to be talking about this book right here well not this book but the book I meant to bring that’s also orange that I will put on screen for you uh so let’s hop in the bunker and get some much needed Fairway bunker practice the first thing that I wish I knew a year ago and maybe the most important thing or series of things is that everything has to change everything you new clubs need a new swing need a new pre-shot routine need to learn how to chip again need a new style of putting need a new style of Bunker play need new shoes need new gloves need new malls everything has has to change I need a new mental approach to the game I need a new physical approach to the I need a trainer I need a new workout routine uh and everything needs to change because what I was doing before wasn’t working I’ve mentioned this before a number of times I played High School Golf and I burnt myself out and so maybe I should have seen this coming honestly from last March when I set out to do this whole thing when I started filming in April from then until now everything not just changed a complete overhaul built it back from the ground up and we’re still in the middle of that process and sometimes I forget that and I and I I’m too harsh on myself when rebuilding everything you know about golf maybe cut yourself a little bit of slack and really the biggest part about needing to change things is that last April last March when I started I didn’t even know what I didn’t know meaning I I didn’t even know what I needed to change there were things that hadn’t yet been revealed to me and couldn’t possibly have been revealed to me until I started this process which is maybe the ignorant and Blissful part of this that’s necessary when beginning a journey like quitting your job to play professional golf after not playing for eight years that’s why I need to practice right there that’s belated so here’s the thing again a big part of this journey and channel is me relating to you my my goal is to inspire you and so I I think it’s also my responsibility to pass along what I’ve learned um in case you yourself want to attempt a daring dream chasing Endeavor remove bunkers better light looks cooler and I changed to an ad iron but my point is this really at the end of the day don’t let the fear of the unknown stop you from starting because you there’s just no way you could never know everything you need to know before you start and this is where the Alchemist comes in the book that I mentioned a second ago The Alchemist is probably my favorite book of all time that ever read it’s a fantastic book about pursuing your personal Legend other words your dream your goal your desire I should have warmed up before shooting this video I’m stiff as a board anyway The Alchemist says that the only way to learn is through action you simply must start and that’s what I found to be true so far on this journey I had no idea the kind of people I would encounter I had no idea the kind of courses I would play and more than anything I had no idea how good I was on one side of things I had no idea how unprepared I was no idea how much I needed to change on the other side I had truly no idea how capable of change I was How brave I was how strong I am how committed I am and genuinely how good at golf I am or have become because it takes a lot of Bravery it takes a lot of courage to start anything new if you’re out there thinking of changing careers or changing occupation you don’t yet know how Brave you are much like knowledge bravery comes through action toughness grit tenacity all that you show Yourself by doing it there’s no amount of telling yourself that you’re good enough it’s going to get you there you have to see yourself be good enough you got to see yourself walk with the pros drive next to the pros make the putts next to the pros that’s in the water my next big takeaway here is patience just because you don’t have it figured out when you start doesn’t mean you won’t have it figured out by the end you’re going to figure it out in the middle and the middle is where the action lies but you need patience to allow that to happen all the learning all the growth all that happens in the challenges all that happens when it’s tough when it’s hard when things suck you got to be patient enough to allow yourself to experience the learning to experience the growth and like The Alchemist says in the book everything you need to know will be revealed to you along your journey and I guess I just believe that by the way if you haven’t read The Alchemist you need to pause this video right now and go to Amazon and get you a copy and read it as soon as possible I got one last takeaway message for you and two lasting questions for myself my message is this you don’t need to know everything there is to know in order to take the lead in order to take the risk and start a new journey in order to chase your personal Legend your dream your hero’s journey all you need is enough confidence in yourself that you can make it to the first step if you’re only looking at the final goal then you need enough confidence to get you all the way there but if you’re only looking at the first step you only need enough confidence just take one step forward and that’s the that’s the point of this video that’s it in a nutshell you don’t need to know what you need you don’t need to know what you don’t know you don’t need to know what you will find on your journey you just need to know that you are strong enough brave enough and capable enough to take that first step bladed my two lasting questions for myself the first what will I say this time next year right now it feels like I can’t shoot anything but 75 right now it feels like I can’t hit more than nine greens but if I stick with it if I keep pressing if I keep moving forward only one step at a time right now I don’t have the confidence to say I’m going to Monday qualify into a corn fairy next year but I don’t need the confidence to say that I only need the confidence to say I can sit here and hit a few more practice bunker shots right now I can get a little better at that my next question for both myself and for you if I had known everything that I needed to know if I had known that I needed a new swing a new mental game a new approach to chipping putting course management a new bag a new set of clubs new balls new gloves new te’s if I had known I needed all that if I had known what I was going to encounter along the way all the hateful comments all the disbelief and all the positive belief all the people along the way all the frustrating days on the golf course if I had known all of that last year would I have even started maybe that’s a question you ask yourself right now do you need to know everything before you start or are you using that question to mask the fear of starting it’s scary to start terrifying so maybe it’s best we don’t know maybe it’s best I sit here today not knowing what lies ahead of me and I just hit some practice fairy bunker shots who cares if I don’t know what I don’t know if I don’t know what I need to know it will be revealed a along the road throughout the journey but right now all I need to know is hitting Fairway bunker shots in a beautiful evening damn chunked it