How To Perform At Your Best When The Pressure Is On!

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“Successful people don’t thrive under pressure,

they just don’t let pressure impact their performance.

They refuse to be overwhelmed by it.

They succeed not because of pressure but despite it”.

Hendire Weisinger & J. P. Pawliw-Fry 2015

You may be thinking to yourself ‘I do my best work when I’m under pressure and leave it until the last minute’.?

The key point is We THINK We Do!

When in actual fact we do not perform as well as we COULD do!

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This month we are exploring the Psychology of how to Perform well under Pressure.

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Think of your own experiences:

The deadline is looming for that piece of work. Or it’s the night before the big presentation and you haven’t had time to pull it together. Or you realise the due date is actually the 3rd of this month not the next month. Or you are receiving negative feedback about a piece of work and you need to keep it all together. Or sharing challenging news. Or making high risk decisions. Or participating in that new and challenging negotiation.

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• Do you get paralysed by the fear?
• Do you become defensive?
• Do you feel overwhelmed?
• Do you overthink what is happening?
• Do you procrastinate?
• Do you go super quiet?
• Do you yell and let everyone have it?

What is your response when the pressure is on?

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When we aim high, pressure and stress obligingly come along for the ride. We are heading outside of our comfort zone into areas we have not been before. We are encountering situations we have not done before. Therefore, the pressure begins to build!

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Now, when the pressure is on: we may think we are more creative, we may think we are ploughing through our work with the utmost genius focus and concentration. However, it is only our own perceived thoughts.

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THE TRUTH IS:

People who do truly perform well under pressure AND produce the goods, are better able to mitigate the negative effects of the pressure.

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And beneath this ability to ‘mitigate the negative effects’ is a High-Performance Mindset that allow these people to perform well regardless of the situation.

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Everyone can learn to perform well under pressure. You can achieve your best when it matters most! You can achieve your best possible performance when the pressure is on and you need it most!

Here Are Five High-Performance Mindset Techniques:

1. Reframe Fear as excitement:

In the words of Fritz Perls, the founder of Gestalt therapy, ‘Fear is excitement, without breath’. When you are experiencing fear… breathe. You aren’t changing the external world but you are taking control of your own inner world. The only thing you can truly control!

2. Draw on your past success:

Remember a time when you achieved a similar success. It helps you focus on what went well, the behaviours that influenced you to perform well and it recreates an optimistic experience in the moment. You’ve done it before, you can do it again!

3. Pre-performance routines:

Top athletes, surgeons, actors, successful people have routines they use to focus attention, reduce distractions, and set themselves up to go into a positive mental state. A pre-performance routine (specific set of repeated actions) reduces anxiety, and increases control over emotions.

4. Focus on the present:

Remaining in the present moment takes away stress. Focus on the here and now. Not scurrying off to the future to all the imagined things that could go wrong and not getting stuck in the past with the things that didn’t go as you expected or wanted. Just focus on the here and now in the present moment.

5. S l o w?D o w n:

When most human beings are in a high pressure situation there is a tendency to speed up, go flat tack, take shortcuts to get there faster. Moving too fast leads to saying or acting on things before you or they are ready. Ease up, slow down, pull back, put the brakes on, decrease the speed and go at the right pace. Give yourself time to think straight, to be in the moment, to be consciously present!

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Performing well under pressure is a vital skill to learn and be able to implement in that instant, at the drop of a hat. Performing well under pressure is the difference between those who are successful and those who are not. When you implement your high-performance mindset, you WILL succeed. Not because of the pressure, but despite it!