22 Pressure Solutions
I recently read a book about performance pressure and wanted to share these solutions for dealing with pressure. It is worth noting that these are short term pressure solutions, and the book’s second section covers long term pressure solutions listed as Confidence, Optimism, Tenacity, and Enthusiasm (COTE of Armor).
Athletes deal with many kinds of pressure, and these are excellent ways to give yourself some perspective on dealing with pressure.
Embrace pressure situations as a challenge, fun, and opportunity
Acknowledge that this is one of many opportunities
The importance of this pressure event is small
Focus on the mission, the process, and doing your best on each task
Expect the unexpected, prepare and anticipate overcoming adversity
Affirm your self worth, today is a new opportunity, acknowledge your skills and other positive qualities, to more easily learn from errors
Flash back to previous success, trust you can do it again, stimulate similar success responses and turn nervousness into positive enthusiasm
Use your positive GPS system, be positive before and during pressure moments, know you can succeed
Focus on the here and now, worry is rooted in the past and future, be present, tune into your senses, see, hear, feel, smell, taste.
Focus on what you can control, action cures anxiety, anxiety is designed to get you to act, visualize the controllables and performance going well, visualize the uncontrollables and performance going poorly, and then visualize yourself getting back on track.
Listen to or sing a favorite song and let your automated well practiced skill flow without interruption of overthinking
Use a holistic cue word or image to guide performance and distract yourself from thinking too much - Smooth, breathe, stay in the fight, right here
Pressure yourself and practice under high pressure conditions
Squeeze a ball under pressure in your left hand to activate the right brain where skill patterns are automated
Write out your concerns and feelings about pressure situations
Put away your self consciousness by recording yourself and desensitizing to your self consciousness
Meditate and regulate your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors
Be OCD, create and practice a pre-routine consistenty
Slow down your resposne to avoid overtaxing working memory with worry
Breathe naturally, regulate your breathing with 4x4 when breathing becomes adrenaline filled short and laborus, maintain your composure
Go first, others have to score to tie, or score to keep up
Share pressure openly with the people around you
Here are the pressure solutions in 1-3 words to remember them more easily:
Challenge, Fun, Opportunity
Many opportunities
Just a
Process mission focus
Expect the unexpected
Acknowledge your abilities
Remember previous success
Use positive GPS
Here and now
Focus on controllables
Songs for flow
Holistic cue word
Pressure yourself
Squeeze L-hand, automate
Write your concerns
Desensitize self-consciousness
Meditate and regulate
Practice pre-routine
Slow down response
Breathe naturally
Going first advantage
Share pressure openly
One of my favorite pressure solutions was to view competition as a challenge to see if I could keep up or beat, an opportunity to push me to higher levels by picking up on what they do better and where I am deficient, and as fun. Often viewing competition in a threat mindset triggers our stress response and increases our anxiety. This is especially true if our self identity is overly tied up in our performances and how we do relative to others. Being in a challenge mindset frees us from having to take the emotional hit to our ego if things do not align with how our sense of self thinks we should do. Instead of someone beating you becoming a blow to your ego and identity which is interpreted as a threat and has negative physiological and psychological responses associated with it, that same defeat can be turned into a positive, empowering, and confidence-building outcome. You can view this defeat as an opportunity to get better, a fun challenge to embrace to push your level and see if you can beat your competitor without the pressure that your sense of self will be shaken dependent on the outcome.
Viewing the competition as fun, an opportunity, and a challenge may take enough pressure off so that you can perform without distraction or fear, and gives you a better chance of coming out on top when the pressure to beat the other (due to their level or the pressure of the event) is at its highest.