I want to talk to you about how to perform under pressure. Specifically, how could you increase your risk tolerance? How could you be more confident, be more productive, and potentially hard-wire yourself to do that.

The technique will not be based on pump up, or “rah-rah” motivation, or anything like that.

What do I mean, get a win? I mean, your brain is hardwired to win. When you win, it fires off your good pharmacy.

If you set a goal and you achieve it, your brains shoots off some good stuff in your body, some good hormones, specifically. Number one, testosterone. Testosterone goes up and as a result your confidence goes up. You feel stronger to go for your next challenge. You’ll be more ready to take on bigger risks and bigger challenges.

As the testosterone gets fired off, so does dopamine. What does that hormone do? Dopamine makes you feel good. Plus, dopamine helps you hold onto more information in your brain at one time.

When dopamine gets fired off, you feel good, and you are also able to hold onto more info. So, when you’re in, a meeting, or you’re going to handle a tough client, or close a deal, or you’re under pressure, with dopamine in your system you will have more answers available to you, because you can remember more. That’s the power of dopamine.

So, what I’m saying is get a win. When I say, get a win, I don’t necessarily mean graduate from school, or get a promotion, or get a raise, or get married, or have a child. All of those terrific moments are wins, no doubt, but a lot of times they’re really spaced apart. In other words they don’t happen very often. So the good pharmacy isn’t firing off as much.

The goal is, you want to set smaller, meaningful goals you can achieve on a regular basis. Consequently, your brain will release the hormones (testosterone and dopamine) more frequently.

Examples of smaller meaningful goals could be: I’m going to clean my inbox. I’m going to clean my house. I’m going to call that friend. I’m going to make this killer meal. I’m going to go on this crazy run. When you set goals like that, and you achieve them, the good pharmacy gets fired off. Testosterone gets released. You feel more confident and ready to take on more risks. Dopamine gets fired off and you can remember more things at any given time and you’re feeling better during the process.

So if you want to be able to handle more risk, gain more certainty, and feel good in the process, get quick wins. Set meaningful small goals so that the good pharmacy gets fired off, and you will absolutely find a way to win.