Trying to be perfect got you down?

[Motiv Girl]

Striving for perfection or to be the best seems like a pretty positive trait to have. It helps you set big goals and then motivates you to go after them. The drive to be perfect also motivates you to look for imperfections in your technique and performance, thus helping you to actually get better. The perfectionist athlete is never satisfied with his performance and therefore constantly looks for ways to improve. On the surface, this seems like a pretty good trait to have if you have big dreams that you want to turn into a reality.
Perfectionist athletes are characterized by high levels of motivation, an intense desire to succeed, and a strong work ethic. Despite high levels of motivation, perfectionist underachieve because of fear of failure and wanting so badly to succeed. Perfectionist athletes try to hard to perform perfectly. This causes a lack of trust and relates to the athlete’s expectations about how he should perform. Perfectionists often compete with a training mindset caused by an obsession with perfection, and wanting to practice to improve for the future. This causes them to over-analyze their technique or mechanics and keeps them from just playing the game and performing. Perfectionists perform with an over analytical and judgmental mindset, which often undermines their competitive self-confidence. This is caused by their need to perform perfectly. When these athletes make an error or mistake they tend to dwell on it, lose composure, and take their head out of the game.


The problem arises when your perfectionism gets away from you. When your drive to be perfect prevents you from appreciating what you've already accomplished your perfectionism is out of control. When your need to be perfect blinds you from seeing that your last performance was actually a good one or when it causes you to obsess about one minor mistake and thus lose perspective of the entire performance, then you know that your need to be perfect has turned against you. When your coaches, friends or parents tell you that you did well and you are absolutely convinced that they are all wrong, this is yet another clue that your perfectionism is out of control.


If you expect perfection every time you go to compete, then you should plan on spending a lot of time frustrated and disappointed!

Perfectionism sets up a vicious cycle in athletes that will kill your joy and ultimately lead to performance problems and burn out. When you come up short, you’ll tend to respond to yourself with anger and impatience. This kills the natural joy that should be there whenever you practice and compete. In response to this frustration, you’ll tend to try even harder, placing greater expectations to be perfect on yourself for the next time that you perform. With all of this self-imposed pressure, your next performance will be sub-par at best, triggering even more frustration and self-directed anger. With each successive bad performance, your enjoyment will diminish even more and you will begin to lose your confidence. Soon your frustration will erode your motivation and you’ll start to question why you’re even bothering competing in the sport in the first place.

The other nasty thing that perfectionism does is it tends to rob you of the opportunity to feel good about what you did do well. If you’re always looking for things wrong and, in your mind, whatever you do is never good enough, then you'll never have a chance to appreciate those times when you did play well. The games when you're "on" tend to feed your self-confidence. However, if you always interpret these performances as negative or “not good enough,” then you lose a valuable opportunity to build self-confidence.

[tracy]

this is a good article motiv girl. "words were never spoken so true" as i say.

[J Anderson]

Another good reason to have a coach or at least some supportive teammates, since we're not likely to realize that we have drifted from the pursuit of excellence to the compulsive need to be "perfect".

[richc]

Earl Anthony once told me that he makes most of his match play finals on the PBA Tour bowling only at about 80% - 90% efficiency and he does not need to feel he is at 100% effectiveness to win.

Earl also said he never placed himself under the pressure of being in "perfect stroke" each time he stepped on the lanes.

We can learn from this great Hall of Fame Champion.

Practice and then trust your instincts and skills in competition. Place greater focus on choosing a proper target and then on delivering the ball over the target at the best speed to match lane conditions and make one good delivery at a time.

No one ever won the tournament on the first delivery of the first frame. Tournaments are won by being ahead after the final delivery and, therefore, is a process, not a perfect point in time. Keep things as simple as possible in competition.

[J Anderson]

Sounds like a variation on one of those 80 - 20 rules. Specifically, a good decision puts you 80% on the right course. Once you're going you can zero in on your ultimate goal. If you think the decision hast to be perfect you never do anything.

[HunterRunsIt]

Thanks again for the articles and response to my plea for help! I really appreciate all the articles you supply the forum!

[aussiedave]

Striving for perfection or to be the best seems like a pretty positive trait to have. It helps you set big goals and then motivates you to go after them. The drive to be perfect also motivates you to look for imperfections in your technique and performance, thus helping you to actually get better. The perfectionist athlete is never satisfied with his performance and therefore constantly looks for ways to improve. On the surface, this seems like a pretty good trait to have if you have big dreams that you want to turn into a reality.
Perfectionist athletes are characterized by high levels of motivation, an intense desire to succeed, and a strong work ethic. Despite high levels of motivation, perfectionist underachieve because of fear of failure and wanting so badly to succeed. Perfectionist athletes try to hard to perform perfectly. This causes a lack of trust and relates to the athlete’s expectations about how he should perform. Perfectionists often compete with a training mindset caused by an obsession with perfection, and wanting to practice to improve for the future. This causes them to over-analyze their technique or mechanics and keeps them from just playing the game and performing. Perfectionists perform with an over analytical and judgmental mindset, which often undermines their competitive self-confidence. This is caused by their need to perform perfectly. When these athletes make an error or mistake they tend to dwell on it, lose composure, and take their head out of the game.


The problem arises when your perfectionism gets away from you. When your drive to be perfect prevents you from appreciating what you've already accomplished your perfectionism is out of control. When your need to be perfect blinds you from seeing that your last performance was actually a good one or when it causes you to obsess about one minor mistake and thus lose perspective of the entire performance, then you know that your need to be perfect has turned against you. When your coaches, friends or parents tell you that you did well and you are absolutely convinced that they are all wrong, this is yet another clue that your perfectionism is out of control.


If you expect perfection every time you go to compete, then you should plan on spending a lot of time frustrated and disappointed!

Perfectionism sets up a vicious cycle in athletes that will kill your joy and ultimately lead to performance problems and burn out. When you come up short, you’ll tend to respond to yourself with anger and impatience. This kills the natural joy that should be there whenever you practice and compete. In response to this frustration, you’ll tend to try even harder, placing greater expectations to be perfect on yourself for the next time that you perform. With all of this self-imposed pressure, your next performance will be sub-par at best, triggering even more frustration and self-directed anger. With each successive bad performance, your enjoyment will diminish even more and you will begin to lose your confidence. Soon your frustration will erode your motivation and you’ll start to question why you’re even bothering competing in the sport in the first place.

The other nasty thing that perfectionism does is it tends to rob you of the opportunity to feel good about what you did do well. If you’re always looking for things wrong and, in your mind, whatever you do is never good enough, then you'll never have a chance to appreciate those times when you did play well. The games when you're "on" tend to feed your self-confidence. However, if you always interpret these performances as negative or “not good enough,” then you lose a valuable opportunity to build self-confidence.

Like you say, it is desirable to seek to continuously improve but sometimes we do obsess over mistakes and let it get to us. That is when you can lose your edge.
It is difficult to shrug off at times, but shrug it off we must - I try to do this by focusing on the next shot - and work out any adjustment I can make to get that strike.
Try to remain positive - remember that you are doing the thing you love and enjoy the moment.
Dave.