The perfectionist demands perfect from himself ALL of the time, and therefore he has little to no tolerance for anything short of perfection. When this kind of an athlete somehow falls short of his perfect ideals, he becomes upset with himself. Anything that doesn’t measure up to his unrealistic expectations is cause for him to get down on himself big time. As a consequence, the perfectionist completely misses the positive, constructive learning in a failure. He doesn’t focus on what he did wrong to help him plan for what he could do differently next time. Instead, he concentrates on what he thinks is wrong with him right now. The primary lesson that he takes away is an emotional, personal one. It has very little to do with specifics like mistakes in technique, strategy or execution. Instead, the lesson is a global one about what’s wrong with him. I.e. “I suck,” “I’m just not as good as I thought I was,” “I always choke under pressure.” Thus the perfectionist is left feeling diminished and inadequate. If you view every loss, setback or mistake as concrete evidence of your inadequacy and shortcomings as an athlete and a person, then you have nowhere constructive to go with this “lesson.” It doesn’t point you in the right direction. It doesn’t motivate you to practice harder for the right reasons. IT DOESN’T MAKE YOU BETTER IN ANY WAY! In fact it does just the opposite! The perfectionist’s intolerance for mistakes and failures, and inability to find the important lessons in his setbacks trip him up and actually slow down his development as an athlete.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 13:00:01 +0000
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