PERFECTIONISM / 005 [CAN YOU TRAIN YOURSELF TO BE LESS OF A PERFECTIONIST?]
Question
Can an online program help athletes become less perfectionistic?
Study
81 female football players from the UK, aged 18 to 44, who saw themselves as perfectionists, were randomly split into two groups. One group followed an eight week online program based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT teaches you to notice your thoughts without obeying them, stay in the present moment and act on what matters to you. The other group waited and got the program afterwards.
Findings
After eight weeks, the program group scored lower than the waiting group on almost every measure of perfectionism. The biggest change was in perfectionistic thoughts, the inner voice saying "I have to be perfect". The program group scored about half as high as the waiting group. Players who completed more modules showed bigger drops in these thoughts and in anxiety. One thing did not change: the feeling that others demand perfection from you.
What It Means for Athletes
Perfectionism is not something you are stuck with. A relatively short program you can follow at home made a real difference. There are some limits: there was no measurement weeks or months later, the players knew which group they were in, and the results on emotions were less reliable. But this was a proper experiment, which makes it stronger evidence than most studies in this series.
Try this: next time you think "I have to be perfect", rephrase it as: "I notice I'm having the thought that I have to be perfect." Then bring your attention back to the next action. You're not fighting the thought, just not letting it steer.
Source
Watson, D. R., Hill, A. P., Madigan, D. J., & Donachie, T. C. (2024). Effectiveness of an online acceptance and commitment therapy program for perfectionism in soccer players: A randomized control trial. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 13(1), pp. 5 to 22.
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