Performing Under Pressure

"A man is not great because he hasn't failed; a man is great because failure hasn't stopped him." - Confucius

I have previously shared lessons from Performing Under Pressure. Weisinger and Pawliw-Fry describe the biology of pressure and short and long-term mitigators of degraded performance. The authors share their four long-term "COTE of armor" - confidence, optimism, tenacity, enthusiasm. 

Here are ten simple, practical Performing Under Pressure strategies with brief annotations. The goal of the short term strategies is boosting positives, eliminating negatives, focus, proper arousal, and finding what works for you. 



1. Use music as it distracts you from pressure and regulate arousal. Some music can stimulate and other can calm. Some does both (anyone who has heard Rossini's William Tell Overture/Lone Ranger theme attests to that). Find your muse. 

2. Focus on the moment. Play present. Just "be". 

3. Watch video of your best performances. Watching video removes self-consciousness and shows you succeeding.  

Train yourself to be an optimist from lohynova

4. Be positive. We have a powerful 'inside voice'. I CAN DO THIS. 

5. Highlight reel. Jason Selk's great book 10 Minute Toughness incorporates valuable strategies for mental toughness. Develop a mental ESPN highlight reel of plays that show you succeeding. They don't have to be extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime achievements. Visualize yourself serving an ace, timing the block perfectly, or slamming home a winner.

6. Power position. Daughter Paula used to walk into the gym "making myself big" standing tall to let everyone in the gym know "I'm here." Harvard researcher Amy Cuddy describes the value of assuming "power positions" to raise testosterone (confidence hormone) and lower cortisol (a stress hormone) even after as little as two minutes.

7. Breathing.



Another principle from Jason Selk was proper (centered) breathing...controlled breathing...slow inspiration (6 seconds)/breath hold (2 seconds)/slow expiration (7 seconds). Others recommend "square" breathing of four seconds (inhale, pause, exhale, pause). 

8. Anchor words or cues. Heisinger and Pawliw-Fry discuss the "cookie jar." Get on top of the ball; put the cookie into the cookie jar on a high shelf.

9. Simulation.



Feel the pressure. Simulate the moment. When teams and individuals practice pressure situations they are more likely to perform when THE MOMENT arrives.

10. Speed kills.

Haste makes waste. Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman described heuristic (automatic, reflexive) X-system and thoughtful, reflective (C-system) operations working in the brain. It takes more energy but activate your "C-system" to help DO YOUR JOB reflexly.

Top 30 nuggets Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman from nugget