Perfection - Your Own

(Note: I'm shortening our term to "Sperbs." If you're only saving one letter, it's not much of an abbreviation, eh?)

Sperbs are hard-wired to try to be the best at everything we do. We have very high expectations of ourselves - especially if we study the topic before attempting it. If we don't perform at the highest level, we walk away discouraged and angry with ourselves.

This is not healthy. Granted one should always look to improve one's self - especially in their chosen professional field - but being the best or being perfect is something we are not likely to accomplish. In any non-academic pursuit which may have a physical element, Sperbs are at a disadvantage from the get-go - our fine motor skills on the whole aren't too good (meaning we tend to be clumsy and/or awkward).

Even in academic pursuits, we have our hurdles - namely ourselves and our own fear of imperfection. We're so concerned with not missing a question, sometimes we overthink it and answer something entirely wrong.

I know this is easier to say than do (since I still have trouble with it and I'm 26 years older than you), but we need to give ourselves more realistic expectations. Set modest goals for your first time out, then slowly increase those goals with practice. Don't even compare yourself to the rest of the field until your performance starts rating on the leaderboards.

Odds are the person who wins dedicates a lot of their lives to whatever it may be, and has done so for a long time. Wait until you have done so for a long time before comparing yourself to that person - that is the only fair comparison.