You’ve practiced. You’re ready to give that speech or
play that piano recital or take that test. Yet, when the pressure is on, you
flounder. Your mouth goes dry and your throat tightens when you are handed the
microphone. Your fingers become like sausages when you sit down at the piano.
Your draw a blank when you look at the test questions
It’s called choking
and defined as “not performing at optimum capacity under pressure.”
We’re not taking about
the anxiety that results from not being prepared, but rather, about freezing up
even though you have practiced or studied and are ready to perform.
It’s real. We ‘choke’
under pressure due to the effect of stress on our thought processes. Some of us
are more prone to it than others, but there are research supported techniques
you can use to prevent it.
Journal
before a stressful event
Writing down your
thoughts, when you are facing a stressful situation, clears away anxious
thoughts and regulates the stress hormones
Graze on real food
Your brain is a three
pound hog and eats most of what you eat. This means your food dramatically
affects your brain function. Sugar spikes and cells, gummed up with the wrong
kind of fats-hearted, hydrogenated fats and too much saturated fat reduce brainpower.
When you need to
perform well, graze on small amounts of good food throughout the day, mostly
vegetables and lean proteins. Avoid sugary, processed foods. This will provide
a steady stream of nutrients for the brain. Also, be sure to drink at least
eight glasses of water.
Meditate and pray
Research shows these
practices calm your soul and heal your mind. Stress damages your memory, your
motor skill and your ability to make decisions; ultimately, this will affect
your ability to perform at optimum capacity.
Speak positive affirmation
Words have power. We
are continually carrying on conversations with ourselves. If we speak positive
things to ourselves, it stokes our confidence. Confidence improves performance.
Confidence improves performance and makes it less likely that we will be choked
by anxiety.
Create words that poise you for action
In one study, some
skilled golfers were instructed to perform putts in three different ways.
Players in the first
group focused on three words related to physical technique (such as “head,”
“weight” and “arms”); the second group focused on three words that had nothing
to do with the put (for example, “red,” “blue” and “green”); and the third
group focused on a single word that described the putting motion (such as
“smooth”).
Initially, the golfers
putted in a low pressure situation and most of them did well. The pressure was
increased with the offer of a cash reward for performing well.
Major differences
surfaced between the three groups. Those who were utilizing just one word
smooth performed better than those who were using a number of words to monitor
their performance.
Practice under pressure
Ratcheting up the
pressure at your practice sessions is the best way to avoid choking, when it
counts.
Before making a speech,
practice in front of a video camera and let a friend review it. Play a sport
with someone more skilled than you and ask for feedback. This will trigger the
anxiety that you are likely to experience during the actual performance.
Exposure beforehand will diminish the stress response when the time comes.
Don’t self-monitor
The part of our brain
that is most involved in learning a new task is the cerebral cortex. When you
play a piece of music, rehearse a speech or practice a sport over and over
again, you gradually transfer the control of that activity from the cerebral
cortex to another area of the brain called the cerebellum.
To perform well, you
need to stay in the cerebellum supported “Zone.” If you are continually
‘checking your progress’ you are engaging another part of the brain. This will
bog you down and choke you, too much self-monitoring hinders performance.
In summary, if you
want to perform optimally, prepare your mind, your emotions and your body and
when the time comes to perform, just do it. And do it with all your heart.
