Perfectly Imperfect
"Perfection is a myth. Yet every athlete I coach struggles with it."
Put simply we struggle with it on the daily and this comes from different places for each of us.
We think we need to be perfect to take the task on. We think we need the green week in Training Peaks to achieve our goals.
Then we berate ourselves. Not perfect ? I will give up.
Each week on Monday I do my reflection of the previous week’s training. I look at that individually for each athlete and then look at it as a whole. I rarely if ever see perfect. What I do see is a mix. We have the missed session, the session that didn’t go as planned. We have soreness, the impact of work and family demands, we have viruses.
What we have here is reality !!
So how do I react? I react perfectly to the imperfect. I coach. I reinforce how to manage life demands with compassion and empathy. I remind athletes to eat well. To keep a balance in their life. To not let one area of their life dominate.
My job isn’t to have a perfect environment. It is my job to coach as well as I can. To respond not react. To remain calm and stick to my cues.
The Scandal
This week in the NRL the Sydney Roosters were thrown into an interesting situation where some members of their team were implicated in a drug scandal. The chaos environment at play.
What did they do? The Coach held a press conference where he responded to the claims and told the hungry media pack just where they stood. He carefully fielded questions and delivered honest responses.
He said at this stage they have nothing to go off other than newspaper reports. They would take things as they come to them and when they come to them from the people that matter.
He reinforced that this isn’t a game and it’s not an opinion piece. It was about peoples lives. Their integrity. Both the club’s and the player’s. They would respond in due course and in the correct manner.
The cynical in me wonders whether with the finals on our doorstep was this an attempt to derail the plans of one of the finals contenders? Maybe !
What it would take is strong leadership to keep the team focused and steady.
That to me would be the perfect response.
How can you use this in your day to day life and sport?
Rarely will life present itself to you on a platter so you need the perfect approach to imperfection.
Don’t carry your divots. A saying that says if you make a bad shot then don’t carry that to the next shot. Each session, each day, each interval is a chance to try again.
Remain emotionally steady. Don’t let life tell you a story. No - this doesn’t always happen to you. You are just telling yourself a story that it does.
Reframe it. There’s a Jocko Willink story that is called “Good”. (link) He is from a military background. The ultimate chaos environment. He had a leader that said “good” to every challenge faced. Got a flat on that long ride? Good ! Another chance to practice changing a tyre. Didn’t PB your last time trial ? Good ! Good reminder to review your pacing strategy and look for flaws.
Remain calm. Know who you are and what you stand for. Be compassionate to yourself and those around you.
Be perfectly imperfect !!!