by Dr. Elisabeth Slator
Ph. D. University of Tennessee
Lecturer California State University
A Former 2-sport D-I Athlete

In the last (Fall, ’07) FENCOR Newsletter, I wrote about a few simple tips that have been shown to improve the confidence levels of young athletes like you.  Most of you already knew that the amount of confidence that you have in your skills has a direct correlation with your ability to execute them during game time, but perhaps you did not know that you were capable of enhancing your confidence levels with just a little practice.  Hopefully my advice provided you with some tools for how to do this and each of you are growing more and more confident everyday.  By the way, keep working on that, confidence building is not a one-shot deal!

In this column, I would like to focus on a topic that might also be of value for many of you - the pitfalls of perfectionism.  That’s right, I said perfectionism.  Perfectionism is an ailment that strikes many young people who are smart, talented, and ambitious.  My guess is that it is an ailment that has stricken many of you.  I say this because you are an athlete, and athletes are by nature, in the business of “being the best”.  After all, isn’t that what competition is about – striving to become “Number 1”?  However, it is important to keep in mind that there is a tremendous difference between wanting to be the best and believing that you can be perfect.  If you believe that you can achieve perfection, then you may have experienced thoughts similar to this:

• It is unacceptable to make mistakes, I am better than that.
• I feel worthless when I am not successful.
• Unless I reach the ideal, I am a failure.
• Unless I can be the best, there is no sense in trying.
• To win is the only acceptable goal.

Right now, if you are wondering what is wrong with experiencing thoughts like that, the first thing I would say is, take it from a person who continues to learn the hard way, striving to reach unrealistic ideals and expecting to never make mistakes is extremely unhealthy.  In particular, it saps the joy from activities, like basketball, that you love.  In addition, people who hold firm to the belief that reaching the ideal is THE most important thing, often limit themselves because they are so afraid of failing.  So, instead of becoming the PERFECT athlete, my advice to you is to become a FEARLESS athlete.  Fearless athletes are:

• Success driven rather than motivated by fear of failure
• Not limited by unrealistic expectations
• Able to raise the bar during crunch time because not concerned with failure

Just like with self-confidence, you need only to make some little adjustments to shift from focusing on perfection, to focusing on fearlessness.  First, recognize that mistakes are inevitable and are part of what make us human.  You will not make every shot you take, and sometimes you will face an opponent who will be bigger, faster, and more talented than you.  The sooner you understand that sometimes in life you will fail or show weakness, the more quickly you will be able to grow from and move past these experiences.  Remind yourself that the important thing is improvement and progress, not outcome and perfection.  Second, draw on those “thought stopping” techniques that I wrote about in the last column.  When you spend time mentally scolding yourself for not being “good enough” you bog yourself down with unnecessary distractions, and allow those fearful thoughts to take root.  When you get scored on, or throw an errant pass, don’t beat yourself up.  Think about what you could have done differently, and then go and do it.  Finally, let go of those rigid and impossible standards for your performance.  Sit down with your coach and develop goals for yourself that are realistic, achievable, and specific.  In doing so, you can create a stairway of small achievements that will set you up for your ultimate desire for success.

In life, you will undoubtedly experience times when you are not “the best”, the “model”, or the “star pupil”.  This does not make you the worst, and it does not mean that you stop striving to reach your potential.  Be open to the idea that you will be successful in your efforts to improve, and that is the best and most you should ever expect from yourself.  If you can do this, you will become a fearless athlete capable of experiencing all the joy and success that basketball has to offer.