The whole focus of my blog, my training and my teaching is to help you perform better under pressure. I’ve covered in previous posts the fact that it doesn’t matter if you are: a professional athlete; a doctor or a surgeon; a teacher; or a student, when you are facing pressure, your abilities decrease.

It’s not just pump up or motivational hoopla. It’s actually proven through data. What happens is your brain starts to short circuit. Your cortisol (the stress inducing hormone) levels rise, you start to lose your focus and all of a sudden you’re making mistakes you wouldn’t normally make if you weren’t facing pressure. Does that make sense?

I’m sure you’ve seen it when you’re parking your car. You attempt to parallel park and when no one is around, hey, it’s no problem. But, as soon as there is traffic and the other motorists start honking their horns, you screw up and you can’t get quite get it right. It’s the same activity, just the pressure’s heightened in one versus the other and your abilities come down.

How do you overcome that moment? What do you do when you’re facing that kind of pressure?

However, the best thing you can do is just slow your thinking down.  The research shows that it actually improves your abilities when you slow down. When your mind’s racing, you’re not being resourceful and you’re thinking too fast, anybody’s going to make a mistake.

But, if you can take a nice deep breath and think about what’s the next right move, you will be better under pressure. Does that make sense?

That’s all I have for you today. A really quickly one, just make sure you slow your thinking down when you’re feeling pressure and ask yourself, what’s the next right move?

Do that and you will find a way to win.