The Psychology of Perfectionism and Procrastination

Are you a perfectionist, but find yourself putting off tasks until the last second? This is something which on the face of it might sound like a strange combination, but is far more common than we think. In my work as a sport psychologist, I often see current and aspiring professionals who have high standards and goals, but often put-off doing the things that will help achieve these goals until the last minute – and by that point it’s sometimes too late. So why is this?

Every been stuck revising for a test the night before, wishing you'd started sooner?

If you’re a perfectionist, you might have very high standards for yourself and expect great results from everything you put your effort into. As a result of this however, sometimes what comes along with this is a fear that you might not actually meet these standards you’ve set for yourself. This fear of failure can be paralyzing, often leading to a delay or ignoring the task until it’s too late.

Sometimes this fear can manifest as self-sabotaging, where rather than trying and falling short of expectations, you might not try at all, or may do something that gives you an excuse for why you’ve failed. For example let’s say you have a really big exam coming up at the end of the week and you’ve put off revising for it until the night before, rather than accept a poor result may be on the way due to inaction, you instead go out for a night out. This way when the poor result comes through, it can be blamed on being tired/hungover, rather than the procrastination itself. Now in sport this could actually look like avoiding researching an opposing team because it brings up a fear of ‘what if I mess up or we lose’, so in order to avoid this feeling we do nothing until it’s too late and end up worrying at the last minute and not meeting our expectations.

Another common thing we see is that sometimes if you’re seeking perfection in sport, you might also feel overwhelmed, because the goals you’ve set can seem enormous. You might not know where to start, or think that if you do start somewhere, it’s not the best place to begin so you don’t start at all. Take for instance the goal of making it to the Olympics at all costs, this is a huge goal that can seem insurmountable for many, and there are so many places you could start on your journey, but they all have upsides and downsides. So once again instead of committing to something that might be imperfect, we are frozen in procrastination and before we know it it’s too late to achieve our initial goal.

Sometimes procrastination with such high standards can feel overwhelming

Another thing I often see perfectionist athletes do is ‘waiting for the stars to align’. What I mean by that is waiting until the perfect conditions are present to begin, which might be having a full day to train, an empty gym, or feeling 100% fit. Unfortunately, these conditions rarely occur all at once so you might be left waiting too long before you can start.

Alongside this, some people procrastinate because there is an underlying fear of criticism and not being good enough. Sometimes people who are perfectionists have been brought up to believe that they must be right/win/improve no matter what, and if they’re not perfect, then they are bad at what they do or undeserving of friendship or love. Understandably this can create a fear of any criticism, so people may be scared to step outside their comfort zone and risk getting something wrong or not performing as well as they’d like. This is difficult in sport because to grow and improve, sometimes we must fail, and push ourselves outside of our comfort zone.  

You're not alone in dealing with these challenges

Overall, perfectionism can create a vicious cycle of procrastination, where the fear of not being perfect leads to delaying tasks, which in turn reinforces the belief that you must be perfect to succeed. Breaking this cycle often involves challenging perfectionist beliefs and adopting more realistic standards for oneself, which isn’t easy. That’s why sport psychologists like me work with people step by step to help reduce the impact perfectionism and procrastination can have on their lives and help them achieve their goals.

If this sounds like you and you want to know more, feel free to email via the contact form below or book a discovery call to see if sport psychology support is right for you.