I can remember putting together a demo tape when I was broadcasting in the minor leagues.  A major league job opened up and I was going to apply for the gig.  I sat at my desk surrounded by dozens of cassette tapes of my work.  I set out to find the perfect inning to include on my tape.

About half way through my choices I started getting depressed.  It seemed that one tape had the perfect home run call but lacked good pacing for the rest of the inning.  Another tape featured good pacing and technique but the inning was boring.  Yet another tape had a great call of a bases-loaded triple, but also included a couple of mistakes.  The truth is, the perfect broadcast didn’t exist.  But that didn’t stop me.

From that point forward, I made it my mission to deliver the perfect broadcast.  Most nights I got to the third or fourth inning before I eventually screwed up a call or mispronounced a name.  Some nights, the first words out of my mouth were a mistake.  The pressure to be perfect was too much for me to handle.  The whole exercise though was a good lesson.  Chasing the perfect broadcast is futile.  My view is that announcers should aim to be as consistent as possible every night.  You shouldn’t toy with perfection, because in the end, perfection will always toy with you.  Trying to deliver the error-free broadcast will get in your head and wreak havoc.

You have enough to think about without adding the pressure of perfection to the mix.  Concentrate on developing your skills and working on areas that need improving.  That is a much better strategy than chasing something that is unattainable.