Perform Without Fear in Competitions
How can you perform fearlessly in competition? Do you need a boatload of confidence? Do you need high trust in your skills? Do you need to stop worrying about making mistakes? Or maybe you need to not obsess about outcomes?
Okay, here’s my take…. All of these mental skills lead to success in sports. The one athlete that struggles the most with these skills is the perfectionist.
Why would perfectionists have trouble performing fearlessly? We know it’s not because of a lack of preparation, dedication or effort.
The truth is: perfectionists obsess about the outcome or what I call the aftermath of the competition, such as:
*If I don’t succeed, will my parents be upset about my game?
*If we don’t win the game, will my teammates still think I’m good?
*If I don’t perform great, will I feel disappointed with my performance?
Yes, all common questions that a perfectionist mulls over. We put these under the umbrella of fear of failure.
See, perfectionists can’t let go and play freely because they are protecting themselves against failure by focusing too much on the outcome and aftermath of competition.
They often worry, needlessly, about what others will think of their performance.
What are the top keys to performing with trust in competition? I’ll give you’re the simple version:
1. Let go of what others think and focus on execution
2. Perform for yourself, not to impress (or not disappoint) others
3. Stop trying to be perfect and think about winning ugly.
Based on these principles, in the Fearless Athlete CD program, I teach you how to overcome the pitfalls of perfectionism and how to perform freely in competition.
Here’s what one parent/coach recently said about The Fearless Athlete CD:
“I purchased The Fearless Athlete program for my daughter, who plays softball. I coach and train her as well…
While reading the program descriptions, she fit the description of a perfectionist to a “T”. I do, too, but have never realized it. Now, I can help her avoid all of the pitfalls I have lived with my entire life.
We are on Day 4 of 15 of the daily lessons, and the improvement has been extremely noticeable. Her game performance has gone through the roof. I can see she’s happier. And it’s brought us closer together.
The training facility she goes to recommended we look into your work. I can now say that I’ll be recommending your program to other coaches and parents as well.”
~Mark Galbraith, Coach and Sports Parent
If you did not know yet, you can get all of The Confident Athlete series on digital download. That means no shipping costs and get it the same day!
The Fearless Athlete Workbook program
Your Mental Game Coach,
Dr. Patrick Cohn
p.s. We also help lots of perfectionists overcome the pitfalls of perfectionism via our person mental coaching programs. Please check out the one-on-one coaching programs here:
Sports Psychology Training for Athletes and Performers
Related Sports Psychology Articles
- Bench Your Expectations to Play Fearless Volleyball
- How Friendly Competitions Helps Boost Performance
- Why It’s Okay for Athletes to Fail
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The Fearless Athlete
For the last two decades, I’ve been working with athletes and helping them optimize their physical ability by teaching them the secrets of top performing athletes. Now, you too can learn how to regain that child-like fearless attitude.
Mental toughness is what separates the winner from the loser in any competition. Champion athletes train hard in practice, perform without fear in competition, and trust their skills in crunch-time.
The Fearless Athlete program is ideal for any athlete that wants to overcome fear of failure and uncover inhibiting perfectionistic traits; or for any coach or parent who wants to teach athletes to perform with trust and freedom in competition.