Perfectionism and the “Investment Payout Assumption”
By Abra Garfield (MAPS, CoSEP)
Sport & Performance Psychologist
23/09/2021
Malcolm is a 16-year-old 100m and 200m sprinter in grade 11. He is national champion in both events three years running and is also the Australian and World record holder for his age. He aims to compete in three Olympics and leave a legacy in Australian sport like that of Cathy Freeman.
Malcolm prides himself and identifies with his standard. It’s his brand and what separates him form the competition. A relentless attention to detail, 100% effort and total sacrifice for the goal. Every year he improves his nutrition, recovery, sleep, strength and conditioning and training closer to perfect. He has all the marks of a great athlete and potential to reach the top. Everyone around him reinforces him for his work ethic and brand.
But his standard is his million-dollar ticket AND his Achilles heel.
Malcolm has sacrificed so much to get here. He misses school camps, birthday parties, socialising on the weekend, sleep overs, sleep ins, eating junk food, playing video games- BEING A KID!
In sport psychology we call giving up everything and sacrificing for one goal ‘Identity Foreclosure’. One shuts down shop on many/most aspects of their identity and life to focus on performance, leaving them vulnerable to stress and wellbeing issues. Humans are not pandas, we have a diverse set of wellbeing needs to function optimally (not just Bamboo). When one’s eggs are all in one basket one has a lot to lose if that basket falls. Humans are not designed to sacrifice developmental and wellbeing needs for too long without repercussion.
Malcolm began to stress the little things that used to make him proud, his microscope for detail became ‘mental math’. He was calculating what times he would get on the track and what rank he would get in the next event with his sleep, fuelling, training and social sacrifices each day. He started to worry about error and mistakes and found them intolerable in this pursuit of PBs.
His enjoyment for training and running in general began to wane and with that his performance plateaued frustrating him and stressing him more. He got several minor accumulative injuries that also compounded things. His stress levels began to influence his energy, appetite, sleep and emotional wellbeing. Motivation dropped and he was watching the clock during most of his training.
Let’s just say Malcolm wasn’t that fun to be around- he became irritable and reactive upsetting some of his friends and family accidently.
Malcolm broke down with 4 weeks left until Olympic trials after coming 2nd and running 0.75 seconds off his PB at his school national finals. With his coach and the help of a sport psychologist he made the tough decision to pull out of Olympic trials and take a week break from running (he had a shot at making the relay team). This decision shocked everyone around him including his father who was deeply invested in his running. He was burned out and considering quitting all together but was strangely relieved and light with the weight of the world off his shoulders. But what now?
Perfectionism is marked by three flags-
1. Unrelenting standards- a lofty almost unattainable bar that drives one to train or study for the highest achievement. Once they achieve they push the goal posts back and only enjoy the victory briefly before going on to the next challenge.
2. Perfectionism causes people to identify with their achievements and successes as if their grades and trophy cabinet were a credit economy for their self-esteem. This reliance on outcomes and results for self-esteem leaves one vulnerable as outcomes are not controllable and when you reach for the stars failure is common.
3. Perfectionism causes an inflation in the already inflated human belief of control. We believe we have control of ourselves, our world and even others- therefore we can predict and even guarantee things (grades, making a team). It’s part of our design and the main reason we get upset so often. The universe rudely reminds us we can only influence our world. Control is scarce. Many factors effect a single performance on the day. This inflated belief of control leads perfectionists to assume what they put in they will get back in return through performance. This is called ‘the investment payout assumption’ or equivalence assumption.
These flags help us understand Malcolm’s unrelenting standard, stress around details and mental math. It explains his sacrifice and also his stress levels. If ones standards and investment in one goals rises too high above the human threshold for too long than the body and mind responds with stress.
Humans are not designed to be perfect or have perfect lives so we can achieve perfect goals.
We are designed to find balance and have a diverse range of inputs to achieve optimal functioning and sustainable human potential. Malcolm was borrowing time from the future without knowing it and his rise to the top was not aligned with human design leading to burn out.
Stress is the cause of burnout.
Stress compromises your physical wellbeing by reducing immune, metabolic and digestive system functioning. Stress reduces neo-cortical functioning (the brain-needed for school and life), it causes increased muscle tension, cardio-vascular pressure, heart rate, and inflammation markers. Stress destabilises the 12 overlapping systems that make us human if its chronic putting our health at risk, our mental health at risk and as athletes it increases injury vulnerability significantly. This is because it reduces our capacity to train and effects recovery and fuelling.
Psychologically stress increases our fight or flight system activity in our brain that is responsible for hormones like adrenalin and cortisol and emotions like fear, anxiety, anger and frustration. It increases our perception of threat danger and problems in areas of our lives that are important to us. And it makes us feel chronically uncomfortable in our own bodies.
Our system can break down in the search for human potential if we do not recognise the importance of balance and the contribution of wellbeing to performance longevity.
Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt are probably 2 great examples of dynasty and legacy athletes at the Olympic level. If you look into both people we find they are not perfect. But they respect the temple. They treat training and sport environments and activities like a temple and their perfectionism and standard in those places is unmatched. But both athletes have been known to party and let their hair down and celebrate life (sometimes getting them in trouble!).
I am not advocating partying or breaking the rules, only noting that top athletes can switch it on and off. They do not buy in
to the mental math that everything they do has to be perfect to get the result. Finding balance that fuels the batteries for greatness can help Malcolm open up shop on his identity and build a sustainable legacy of his own.
For support & mental coaching in- leadership, wellbeing, injury recovery and performance contact Abra Garfield at Summit Performance Psychology.
0405259127
abra@summitperformancepsych.com
Summit Performance Psychology operates within Gold Coast Physio & Sports Health
Abra also run The Athlete Recovery Academy – for more information, phone Abra or the Clinic 07 55006470.