Pressure: Does it Enhance or Hinder Performance?

It's the championship game. You're behind by 2 points with 3 seconds left on the clock.

Winning rides on one last shot, your shot.

Make it, you go down in history.

Miss and it ends in misery.

Adrenaline begins to spike,

Pressure builds in body and mind.

The weight of expectation from your team, supporters and self begins to bear down.

How you respond tips the scales of performance for better,

Or worse.

Psychological Pressure:

- A mental, emotional and physical response to a challenging situation.

A balancing act between expectation and execution.

This phenomenon isn't limited to finals or sports. It's experienced in all walks of life at varying moments and degrees.

Pressure can arise from external or internal modalities. The expectations of those outside of yourself:

- Your boss

- Your family

- Your partner

- Your friends

Only have influence if you allow them too.

Often we gift control to our environment whilst limiting our own.

Internal pressure is a concern with self imposed expectation or perceived expectation of others.

Think of it like a forcefield with you in the centre.

The field is your internal state. The arrows, pressure.

There is a choice to allow this pressure to impact your field, hindering or enhancing performance.

Different scenarios benefit from varying amounts of pressure.

If there's 3 days left before a big project is due. Performance will be enhanced to complete the task in time.

Yet, if you felt that same pressure everyday of your life. It would be hard to imagine anything but an person who is:

• Exhausted

• Unenthusiastic

• Burnt out

Pressure under the right circumstance can:

• Improve efficiency

• Increase resilience

• Kick performance into overdrive

• Create flow

What are the right circumstances?

That's for you to discover.

We are all unique.

Life experiences, character traits, environment and much more create a situation that cannot be replicated.

No guide, advice or tips can completely align with your circumstance.

You must uncover what works and what does not through awareness and experimentation.

Awareness

Ask yourself,

• In which situations do I feel under pressure?

• When did it help and when did it hinder?

• Why do I respond differently to these situations?

Growth starts with awareness.

To consciously change we must first acknowledge what is.

Remember, pressure arises from perceived expectation.

Take a step back next time you find yourself in a situation when you feel under pressure.

Observe the feeling.

Awareness is a skill that is developed over a lifetime.

Perspective

Everything is perspective.

We are subjective in thought, feeling and reality.

We have been taught to see the world in black and white, good and bad.

No situation, experience, feeling or thought is positive or negative, good or bad.

We deem things as so, when in reality,

It just IS.

If you are new to this concept, here’s a quick 2 minute read on a story of a chinese farmer

Looking at one experience through multiple perspectives can bring a world of insight.

Example:

- I put a lot of pressure on myself to become the best version of me that is possible in each moment.

- This pressure is overbearing at times.

- But demonstrates how much I care about my success.

- Experience increased anxiety.

- But pushes my capabilities further over time.

- Is a belief system that requires fine tuning.

- But has proven to point me in a good general direction.

- I criticise, scrutinise and berate myself for making repeated bad choices.

- But congratulate and celebrate the victories.

Take a situation you are currently struggling with or have done previously. A situation you deemed as "negative” and look for positives that came from it.

What you perceive is what you believe.

Experimentation:

Your life is one big experiment filled with thousands of miniature ones.

Since the day you were born you’ve been learning, testing and reflecting on everything you come into contact with. Discovering:

• Likes and dislikes

• Passions and desires

• Thoughts and feelings

Now it’s time to experiment on which scenarios benefit from pressure and which do not.

I was an avid vaper. All day, everyday. The expectation that I’d stop wasn’t enough to make it happen.

So I decided to add some pressure by making a contract with a family member. I gave them £200 which they could keep if a vape was used in the allotted time frame. This increase in stakes, coupled with outside accountability, successfully ramped up the pressure to stop.

Find areas of life you are struggling to make a change you desire and find a way to add performance enhancing pressure. There will be areas where you put too much pressure on. Figure out ways to reduce this.

Trial and error is the key.

Final Tips for dealing with pressure

Patience:

Experiences won't change overnight. It takes time and practice to cultivate the mindset you desire and to remove that which you don't.

Acknowledge your effort and the steps you are taking to actualise your potential.

Compare yourself against the past to see how far you’ve come.

Appreciate the small wins.

Self development is a game for life, broaden your time horizon.

Breath:

Breathing occurs regardless of your acknowledgement of the process.

thoughts, feelings and action can effect your breathing, and vice versa. causing an inverse relationship.

Pressure, stress and worry lead to shallow breathing. By become aware of your breath, deepening it. You can consciously calm your nervous system.

There are many different ways to control your breathing and create calm within your body and mind.

Inhale through nose and exhale through mouth.

Here are some variations you can try:

• Box breath (4s in, 4s hold, 4s out, 4s hold)

• Deep breaths, similar inhale and exhale length

• Inhale (1-4s), exhale (+1s)

Acknowledge how your body is moving as the breath comes in and leaves.

Control:

You are not your emotions, you experience them.

All expectation is internalised, you choose if that has influence.

Observe what narrative you are telling yourself.

Everything is connected.

How we feel, think and act all influence one another.

By understanding our emotions we can use them as a tool for growth.

I hope you have gained some value.

Until next time, stay curious.

Morgan Bedford