“Success” vs. Perfection
Gymnastics is a tough sport. Gymnasts practice and practice, getting correction after correction to try and make a skill right. Technically, they will always receive a correction until they get the skill perfectly.
Then they compete. Their score starts from a “perfect 10” and they wobble and bobble it down to where is ends up on the scoreboard. A gymnast is constantly being measured up against perfection.
Wouldn’t it be great if everyone were perfect? But we all know that that is not a possibility, or even remotely realistic. Then why do we work so hard to attain it in the gym?
In my experience, gymnasts are already to a large degree perfectionists. They are very hard on themselves, and believe that they should make a skill correctly each and every time.
If I simply reward perfection, then I will miss every opportunity to acknowledge my gymnast’s improvement and growth along the way. I will instill and reinforce the belief that she must do everything perfectly in order to receive recognition or praise. I will negate the fact that getting a skill is a process. I will be inconsistent. I will be stressing the wrong thing.
It will not behoove them for me to exacerbate that characteristic. You’ve heard Voltaire’s quote that “perfect is the enemy of good.” Seeking perfection can be stifling, and it can rob us of our true potential.
I want my gymnasts to understand that perfection is not what I seek from them, nor is it what they must seek from themselves. My goal for them is to understand instead that progress is more important, that what they learn from the errors they make is what is valuable.
So how do we do this? Reward progress over perfection. Reward the process, the change, the attempt to make it right. Perfection is not required for success. As I see it, success is something we seek and attain when we are truly happy with ourselves, and are making a step closer to our goals everyday. Each of us decides what our own success looks like, not some judge in a blue suit or a skill book full of deductions. Let’s teach our gymnasts to know what they want to get out of their great sport. I’ll bet you anything the majority won’t say “perfection.”
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