Something important is about to happen. Your big moment is coming but suddenly you are
super nervous and can’t remain calm. All of us have witnessed someone choke under pressure
whether it’s a star athlete missing a crucial penalty shot in the clutch or an actor messing
up their lines live. In fact, we all probably felt pressured in some situations which prevented
us from performing at our best. That situation could have been a job interview, an important
test, trying to impress your first date, or maybe even a close game. I know how it feels
to not be able to be at your best due to the pressure so this video will go over why people
panic under pressure and what you can do to stay calm under pressure.
The main reason why people mess up and panic under pressure is focus. There are 2 groups
of theories regarding this idea. The first one is made up of distraction theories. It
suggests that performance suffers when the mind is preoccupied with worry and doubt instead
of focusing on the task at hand. Your brain can only process so much information at once
and something has to give. Most of us have experienced something similar to this in a
low pressure situation as well. If you ever tried working on something while thinking
about something else, you might find it really hard to focus. If it was hard focusing during
a low pressure situation, think about how much harder it would be to focus in a high
pressure situation. The second group is made up of explicit monitoring
theories. These theories focus on how pressure can cause people to overanalyze the task at
hand. The theory states that once a task becomes automatic, thinking about its precise mechanics
interferes with your ability to do it. There’s a study that looked at the performance of
competitive golfers when putting. Putting is a skill they perform so regularly they
don’t have to think about doing it. The study found that when they were told to consider
the detailed mechanics of their putting stroke, the golfers performed worse than when they
were simply instructed to hit the ball accurately. You might have experienced this when you have
practiced for something until you got things right. For example, in an interview, people
often have prepared answers for questions they might get asked. Once you start overthinking
about whether your prepared answer is good enough you might start fumbling and mess up.
Everyone gets nervous before a big event but there are things you can do to make sure you
are at your best once it’s time. First, it helps a lot to practice under stressful
conditions. If you have a high stakes event coming up, you want to get comfortable with
pressure and learn to work through it instead of thinking you will mess up. For example,
if you have a presentation coming up, you can first practice alone without anyone watching.
Once you get comfortable with that, you can start practicing with a couple of friends
or family watching. Another example would be if you have a big exam coming up. Instead
of casually looking through the practice exam and doing some problems, time yourself doing
the practice exam. With enough practice, you will know how to navigate through a stressful
situation and remain calm since you experienced it before.
Second, you want to have a pre-performance routine. One of my favorite examples of this
is Lebron’s chalk toss routine where he throws some chalk dust up before the basketball
game starts. Having a pre-performance routine tells your mind it’s time to act a certain
way and give it your all. Spending your last few minutes before the big event doing your
routine can prevent you from worrying and overthinking. If a routine isn’t for you,
you can also wear a certain piece of clothing that is important to you to get the same effect.
A good example is Michael Jordan who always wore his old University of North Carolina
shorts underneath his Bulls uniform during his NBA career.
Finally, have an external focus on the goal rather than an internal focus. When you have
an internal focus on your mechanics, you tend to perform worse than when you focus on the
goal. This step helps deal with both focus theories. When you focus on the goal, you
will be focused on the goal and completing it. Remember, your mind can only process so
much information at once so if you are focused on the goal, you won’t be focused on your
other thoughts and you can stop overthinking. Also, when you focus on your mechanics, you
will overthink and stop yourself from being 100%. It’s better to focus on something
that isn’t your negative thoughts or your mechanics to get the best results.
While these steps are very helpful, some people are more prone to messing up under pressure.
Research has shown that those who are self-conscious and afraid of being judged by others are more
likely to mess up under pressure. If you fall into that category, you can be more calm and
perform under pressure better by learning how to be less self-conscious and stop worrying
about what other people think. There are some good videos about those topics so I am not
going to cover how to be less self-conscious and stop worrying about what other people
think in this video. Remember, if you mess up under pressure, it’s
not the end of the world. Pick yourself back up and do better next time. If you are lucky
enough, you might have a chance to redeem yourself during the same event.
What do you do when you are under pressure? Leave a comment below and check out the video
shown on the end screen if you liked the video and want more.