Turn perfectionism into problem solving

I recently spoke to a client about the pitfalls of perfectionism. I’ve found that this is one issue that crops up quite often, especially with classical musicians who have had the notion of “perfect” playing drilled into them from a young age.

From my perspective, I consider that I am a “recovering perfectionist.” I felt for a very long time that striving for perfection was a necessary evil to achieve the level of playing required to become a professional performer. But I have to say that I’ve changed my tune in recent years, and feel like I’ve struck a much healthier balance now (thankfully!)

Of course we all want to play our best, and feel the satisfaction of a job well done after each practice session and performance. But one thing I’ve found is that striving towards a high goal generally isn’t the main issue. It’s more about our reaction to the mistakes that inevitably show up when we’re pushing ourselves to the limit.

In the height of my worst perfectionistic wave, I had an incredibly harsh and negative association with any mistakes that I made, be it large or small. Nothing was ever quite good enough. One small blemish or slip up would deem the piece a complete failure. I would kick myself for days for making such stupid errors. “How could you make that mistake, I’ve played it well so many times before, but I stuffed it up when it mattered! You’re hopeless!”

As you can probably imagine, this had a pretty significant effect on my level of confidence, both as a performer and as a person. I thought to myself “If I’ve spent so much time playing the trumpet, yet still can’t perform at the level required to achieve my goals, then I’ve wasted my life doing something that I’m no good at! I’m a bad musician and an inferior person, therefore I don’t deserve success.”

But I was able to turn this kind of negative thinking around by changing how I viewed my mistakes; by making them work for me, and not against me.
How did I do this?

“Mistakes are neither good nor bad, they are just information.”

I read this quote a number of years ago, and it immediately resonated with me. It was like a light bulb went off in my brain. I had always judged and labelled my mistakes as bad, and they only showed what I couldn’t do. I often had an emotional reaction to each inaccuracy or poor performance, and I tied this to my feelings of self-worth and perceived musical ability.

But as soon as I started looking at errors as fantastic opportunities to explore my playing further, to learn WHY I made the error, and come up with possible solutions, I was then able to seismically shift my mindset and build confidence literally overnight. I was no longer judging my playing, but getting excited by all the different ways I could tackle the problem and find the answer. Every mistake was energizing and inspiring, rather than depleting and demoralizing. Errors were tailor-made signs to show me where I could get better, places where I could smash through my current limits and reach greater heights than I had ever done before.

So the next time you make a mistake in the practice room, try asking yourself the following questions:

1. What specifically happened? What was the error?
2. Why did it happen? (again, be specific)
3. What could you do next time to help you get a better result?

Sounds simple, right!?

By taking a problem solving approach, rather than an evaluative, judgemental approach to your playing, you can work through issues with far greater clarity, without weighing yourself down with negativity in the process.

Give it a go this week and let me know how you find it. Write your observations in the comments below.
Also if you are one to struggle with perfectionism, then please get in touch and we can have a chat and work through it together!

Or check out my previous blog on perfectionism here.