Swimmers frequently confuse excellence and perfectionism.
Excellence is:
- Design a process for success
- Give it your best effort from start to finish
- Be in the moment
- Learn what works (and doesn’t work)
- And ultimately, the results take care of themselves
Perfectionism is:
- Create an unattainable standard
- Give an effort contingent on how likely you are to achieve that standard
- Worry about the outcome
- Take failures and setbacks personally
- Beat yourself up when the results don’t align with your standards
Oof.
On top of that, pursuing excellence versus perfectionism is waaaay more enjoyable.
Less stress, less needless pressure.
Which results in more faster swimming, more improvement, and more consistency in your performances.
For the perfectionist swimmer, switching to an excellence-oriented mindset can be very difficult.
Ultimately, perfectionism is about total control.
And loading an excellence mindset requires that you relinquish some of that perceived control in order to perform at a higher level.
But look here:
- We all want that perfect race.
- We train for it. Visualize it. Think about it before we drift off to sleep.
But perfectionism is unforgiving.
- It doesn’t allow for the mistakes you need to grow.
- For the failures in practice to learn from.
- For the bad races to develop resiliency from.
Excellence means you are willing to encounter and overcome mistakes in your pursuit of that “perfect” race.
Source: Olivier Poirer-Leroy
olivier@yourswimbook.com