AUGUSTA, Ga. – It wasn’t a crisis. That’s too strong a word. Call it an early-onset, mid-career ennui. Rory McIlroy was always precocious.

“It's to make the most of the next 20 years of my career,” McIlroy said Tuesday during a candid Q and A with the international press that illuminated his evolving mental approach. “It's not just about one week. This is a lifelong journey of trying to improve and learn and try to master my craft, which is golf.”

The last we saw McIlroy in action, he was making a bee-line for his car and bypassing reporters after losing to Tiger Woods at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas. It was a rare off-day (he still finished T9) and an even rarer moment of pique for an athlete who had just reached a career peak at THE PLAYERS, and McIlroy apologized on social media.

Otherwise, his mind has been quiet, his approach stoic and Zen-like. Among the revelations of his press conference Tuesday was that McIlroy spent 20 minutes meditating before winning THE PLAYERS. His pre-round routine, he said, consists of meditation, juggling (he can three balls but no more, and calls himself “a rookie”), and mind-training exercises.

“Look, I'm not going to go and live with the monks for a couple months in Nepal,” he said, cracking up the assembled media, “but just to be able to get your mind in the right place and be able to focus and to center yourself.”

No one is laughing at McIlroy, 29, who is second in the FedExCup after racking up seven top-10 finishes in eight starts this season, including his win at TPC Sawgrass. Quite the opposite. If anything, they may soon be emulating him. He said he was watching the Augusta National Women's Amateur over the weekend and saw a few women on the range juggling.

“So it's catching on,” he said with a smile.

How did McIlroy catch the idea to look within? And why? The short answer is that he wasn’t reeling off majors, or PGA TOUR wins, or victories of any kind, and was tired of his golf scores dictating his happiness. What he needed, he realized, was ballast. His putting coach Brad Faxon referred him to the Central Institute for Human Performance in Jupiter, and its medical director. CIHP, on its website, states its mission is “to help you discover what you can do to live better, have less pain and perform better. We believe everyone can choose to change his or her life.”

CIHP espouses a comprehensive approach, and even features recipes on its site. Meanwhile, McIlroy, a curious sort and a reader, had already started feeding his head. He read “Ego is the Enemy” and “The Obstacle is the Way,” both by Ryan Holiday. He dove into “The Greatest Salesman in the World,” by Og Mandino, a 1968 classic.

Through his whole career, he had been consumed by swing speed and scores, but these books were preaching something else, which he mentioned in winning THE PLAYERS last month:

Perspective, Persistence and Poise.

He reevaluated priorities, and began to buy into the paradox: Good scores would come back as soon as he cared less about them, or at least accepted that they weren’t going to define him. It’s still a work in progress, he said, but he’s getting there.

Augusta National still fits his eye as much as it ever has. He loves the colors and the contrasts, and that he gets to show off his driving, especially at the lengthened par-4 fifth hole. He has five top-10 finishes in 10 starts here, including a best of fourth in 2015. He led through three rounds in 2011 before coming unglued on the back nine on Sunday.

He has 15 PGA TOUR wins, including a PLAYERS and four majors. He could stop now and still have one of the greatest careers in the history of the game, but that’s not really the point.

The point this week, like any week, is still winning, McIlroy said. And the point is also to not care about winning, to know he’ll be fine whether or not he ascends golf’s Mount Rushmore to take his place next to Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen, who remain—altogether now—the only five to win the career Grand Slam.

Either way, McIlroy will still go home Sunday night and have dinner with his wife. He’ll keep reading the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, and “Digital Minimalism,” by Cal Newport. (McIlroy approves of the cell phone ban here.) He’s in it for the long game, and he’s found what works for him. Ego is the enemy (Ryan Holiday), the impediment to action advances action (Marcus Aurelius), and remember the three P’s (Rory McIlroy).

“I would dearly love to win this tournament one day,” said McIlroy, the betting favorite to do just that. “If it doesn't happen this week, that's totally fine, I'll come back next year and have another crack at it. But I'm happy with where everything is: body, mind, game.”