How to address Perfectionism in Sport & work

If you are a perfectionist, you may find yourself:

·       comparing yourself to others 

·       being overly concerned about making mistakes or messing up

·       being self-critical of your performance

·       feeling as if you bring little to no value to your team

·       worrying about letting down your teammates

·       worrying about disappointing your coach or parents

·       wanting to do everything the ‘right’ way

·       struggling to communicate and talk more on the field

·       unable to give yourself credit for a job well done 

·       obsessing over mistakes and missed opportunities

·       overthinking and hesitating 

·       not trusting yourself or believing in your abilities

·       not being able to accept compliments

·       being afraid of feedback

·       always assuming the worst when someone wants to talk

·       playing cautiously, taking no risks

·       unable to enjoy yourself fully or find your true passion for the game

SELF-CRITICISM & FEEDBACK

If you are a perfectionist, even when you’ve had a rather good game, you might still find yourself unable to be happy with your performance. Instead of being able to enjoy your successes and wins, you obsess over all the small moments that weren’t up to your standards. Perfectionists struggle to reframe mistakes as places to learn and grow and can instead beat themselves up via their inner critic, staying hung up on the mistakes long after the moment has passed. 

When you are dealing with perfectionism in soccer, it can be difficult to take feedback from others because your self-criticism goes off the charts. Perfectionism can cause you to take everything personally and not be able to view things objectively, so getting feedback from a coach or teammate can be a deflating experience instead of constructive one, regardless of how well it was delivered. 

To make things even more complicated, often times the reasonable, thinking part of your brain completely understands that feedback is helpful and said with good intention – but the deep, socially conditioned part of your mind is simultaneously filling you with feelings of inadequacy and failure. This is your inner critic at work. This is why working to overcome perfectionism is so important. 

Work with me and I can coach you to improve the way you approach games and respond to errors on the pitch.

Contact me through bjkennomotivation.com