Seven Days in Utopia narrates the ordeal of a young golfer known as Luke Chisholm (Lukas Black). His father, Joseph Lyle Taylor, was a golfer in the past and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and become a pro golfer. Unfortunately, the father has downtrodden Chisholm sadistically since he was a child. During the pro tour during his debut, everything explodes and fails to work for the young golfer. During the Texas Open, his father fails to support him after the disaster and avoid him in front of TV cameras. The incidence affects Luke Chisholm to the extent that he decides to flee away.
The devastated young golfer drives blindly in the middle of the night and finds himself stumbled across the town of Utopia. Luke believed that he could no longer sustain the pressures that come with golf. It is during this time that Luke met an eccentric rancher known as Johnny Crawford who was regarded as a very wise man. Crawford was optimistic about life and handled it in profound ways. For this reason, Luke questioned his negativity and bad attitude towards life regarding the decisions he made in the past. He realizes that he has the power to transform his life for the future.
Crawford picked Luke after running his car through the fence on the property. He hosts him as a special and honored guest. The weather-beaten rancher promises Luke that he will train him if he promised to stay in Utopia during the week. Luke is inspired by the trophy-filled office, and this illustrates that Crawford had attained massive success when he used to golf. Luke changes his perception about life and starts to view things from a different perspective. He drops his pessimism and starts to live a constructive life. Crawford appropriately coaches him and does not discourage him like his father. Unbelievably, it took seven days to repair Luke’s car and the time was enough for Crawford to train the young man and make him a better golfer (Elder).
Notably, the film demonstrates the application of various mental skills For example, at first, Luke failed to choose a predominantly positive attitude compared to Crawford, and this led to failure during his debut in the pro golf tour. Moreover, successful athletes are highly motivated to attain their goals, but Luke had little or no motivation because his father demoralized him and never supported him accordingly. Mental imagery is another mental skills depicted throughout the film.
Luke, while preparing for the pro tour tournament did not see himself performing diligently. If he could have applied mental imagery appropriately, Luke could have handled the errors and poor performances without letting them break him down. Furthermore, the protagonist of the film could not deal effectively with the anxiety. This mental skill expects athletes to accept anxiety as part of the sport since some part of it can improve their performance. However, Luke did not know how to reduce the anxiety, and it became too strong that it made him lose his intensity. Lastly, the film reveals the goal and commitment of mental skills. In the setting, Luke did not have short-term and long-term goals. Successful athletes have realistic, measurable, and time-oriented goals and acknowledge that their current performance levels can become even better.
Based on the theoretical development of the mental skills, Seven Days in Utopia portrayed both appropriate and inappropriate strategies towards developing the skills. Attitude, as portrayed in the film, can be perceived as an appropriate strategy. At the commencement of the film, Luke has a poor attitude that leads to his failure (Lesyk 2). Later on, he meets Crawford and learns how to drop his poor attitude and believe that he could become a better golfer and pose a challenge in the tournament. Moreover, at the start, Luke was not motivated to succeed as a golfer as his father wanted but realizes that successful athletes are committed to becoming the best despite the challenges they undergo such as limited natural ability, lack of time, financial burden, and other life commitments. For this reason, he learns how to set high and realistic goals after meeting the inspirational Crawford. On the contrary, the mental skill of how to deal effectively with anxiety is illustrated as an inappropriate strategy (Lesyk 3). The director of the movie does not indicate how Luke transforms to deal with the mental skills as he pays attention to the rest.
Given a chance to work with the young golfer, I would major on the aspect of concentration as a mental skill in a unique way. I would let Luke understand that successful athletes have mastered the art of concentration because, without it, it is unlikely to reach higher levels. It is important for athletes to pay attention to every aspect of the game or sports situation without hesitation. This means that Luke will be trained on how to maintain focus during any sports situation and resist distractions. Allowing the disruptions emanating within themselves or from the environment to affect them would be tragic. At the same time, I would teach Luke on strategies that would help him to concentrate after concentration is lost during a game. The golfer would be encouraged to maintain high levels of concentration since it would prevent past events or anticipated future events to distract him. During his debut, it is evident that both past and present events interfered with the belief that he could succeed during the tournament. This is why he had to flee after failing to meet the expectations of his father.
Conclusively, the Seven Days in Utopia movie applies to my field as a fitness leader. Importantly, the film will help me to improve on the mental imagery skills in unimaginable ways (Lesyk 4). From the film, I learned that Luke failed to perform well during the tournament since he failed to picture himself doing well in the competition. Back in his mind, he believed that he could not excel and attain the success according to the expectations of his father. It is for this reason that I acknowledge that the theory integrated into the movie will help me to focus on establishing mental imagery that would help me to advance in my career. A fitness leader requires to have a positive mind that would help him to imagine doing better and influencing people in the right way. Mental imagery helps people to either believe or not believe that they can accomplish certain goals in their life. The film will be applicable and useful in my life in incredible ways.
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