Does the Pursuit of Perfection Elevate an Athlete’s Performance?
Many athletes believe the ideal path to potential is to shoot for perfection. Contrary to this belief, aiming for perfection most often leads to fear of failure and underperformance.
Let’s use an analogy to better understand the impact of shooting for perfection. If every shot you attempted in soccer games missed the mark, you would lose confidence in your abilities.
You may pass up shots late in a game for fear that you will continue to fail. When you fail to be perfect during soccer games, your confidence bottoms out, and you may even consider quitting your sport altogether.
Perfection is unattainable. Mistakes are inevitable, and there is always something you could have done better during the course of practice, scrimmages, and games. When you hold yourself to the standard of perfection, you will miss the mark every time.
A better alternative is to strive for improvement. When you focus on improving, a loss or mistake is an opportunity to learn and improve. In essence, learning is a win because it accomplishes the goal of improvement.
USWNT forward Trinity Rodman, as an elite young player with great potential, felt she needed to be perfect to meet the expectations of others. Failure was not an option.
RODMAN: “There was a lot of fear for me of just wanting to be great all the time and so many expectations of being a younger player.”
When Rodman had a bad game or failed to hit the mark of perfection, her confidence would take a hit. Rodman believed she had to be perfect not only in games but also during training sessions.
Rodman overcame her perfection pursuit when USWNT teammate Megan Rapinoe helped her put failure into perspective.
RODMAN: “[Rapinoe] was always just so good at reassuring me that these bad days are going to make you great and that having them in training sessions is so much better than having them in games.”
Ever since Rodman challenged her perspective on perfection, she has rediscovered her confidence and has become a top-tier, reliable soccer player.
RODMAN: “I think I just want to keep failing. It’s the weirdest thing to say, but in these four years of being a pro, I’ve learned that failing is honestly such a beautiful thing.”
As Rodman knows, there is never a time during the entirety of a soccer player’s career that perfection is achieved. You will take shots that end up in the stands, make unfavorable decisions, and have bad games.
The key is to learn from mistakes and fail forward. It is only when you learn from failure that you achieve your potential.
First, remove the word “perfection” from your vocabulary.
Next, change your definition of failure. Is missing a shot failure, or is giving up during a game failure?
When you redefine failure, you will have less fear of mistakes, more freedom on the field, and increased motivation to improve your game.
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