Let’s start by acknowledging that all of us will experience pressure at some point in our life. Next, I’m asking you to be open to the idea that it is possible to thrive during pressure. Your ability to focus can be affected by pressure. It can impact your judgement and coordination. It may affect your physiology causing you to experience uneasiness or tension. If ignored, pressure will impact your performance negatively, causing you to feel dread or trepidation. For you to thrive during pressure, you must learn how to diminish and ultimately, how to release yourself from nagging, stressful situations.
The good news is anyone can learn how to respond to pressure positively so they rise to the occasion, when it matters most. It just takes a commitment to thinking and acting differently. One of the first things you should focus on is managing your response to pressure.
- Manage Your Response
Your response to pressure will depend on whether you feel responsible for your life’s direction or if you believe external circumstances control and determine your life’s path. As we know, change is constant, so we will be presented with multiple opportunities to be filled with anxiety and tension. How you manage your reaction to pressure will depend on whether you view challenges and failure from a victim’s perspective or someone in charge of their responses and behavior as they face changing and disruptive environments.
Maintaining your calm creates an atmosphere for you to think clearly. During high-pressure moments, it’s natural to experience an accelerated heart rate, sweaty palms, or to have unfocused thinking. Learning to calm yourself, if done effectively using mindfulness, can be a form of cognitive restructuring and a powerful technique. While, CR (cognitive restructuring) is a more complex therapeutic process, in this instance, it’s mentioned as a technique to help you notice and change negative thinking patterns. It’s useful when you are struggling to take charge of your emotions and mood. Cognitive restructuring improves your ability to refocus your thoughts; it helps you create a balanced viewpoint and increases the likelihood of a positive mindset. You learn how to abandon an “all-or-nothing” way of thinking and how to abstain from “all-or-nothing” statements.
Once you’re successful at entering a calmer state, you should focus on what you can control and quickly move to becoming proactive, tackling high-pressure situations you are facing. Dwelling on things that you can’t control will surely, disrupt your calm state. A few examples of things you can’t control include, how a colleague responds to you receiving a promotion; how your boss will reply to you asking for a raise; how a client will react to a proposal you’ve submitted; what family or friends may say when they learn of your decision to change careers or start a business. These things are beyond your control; however, you can control your behavior and reaction to their responses.
Understand that even the best drafted plans may experience complications with some ideas having to be discarded, altogether. When this happens, you should free yourself of condemnation and second guessing. Also, dispel the myth, once and for all, that you are responsible for orchestrating solutions to alleviate the pressures and stress that others are experiencing. While you may be part of the answer to a dilemma or concern, others must be held accountable for how they respond to pressure. Use this time to reassess the problem or issue to determine if you should adjust your position or seek another plan of action. The more effort and time you spend in examining your responses, the sooner you will be able to create an environment that’s conducive to you identifying and addressing your vulnerable areas. As a result, you will continue to build a state of calmness.
Since there are times, you will need to seek additional information to promote a more balanced stance in managing your response to pressure, employing other tools and techniques will be helpful. For instance, deep breathing is a valuable tool that can be greatly beneficial. Deep breathing and meditating are practices that can go a long way in preparing you mentally and spiritually, allowing you to turn a negative situation into a constructive solution. So, when you find yourself in a high-pressure dilemma, take deep breaths and pause for a few moments to avoid reacting in an emotionally charged manner. There is a wealth of information available to help you develop deep-breathing practices that are best suited for you. I believe spending time to gain knowledge in this area will be a wise investment.
Another key to managing pressure is to be aware of your personal triggers. Be cognizant of your stress patterns, watching for warning signs, so you can slow down your responses by applying mindfulness. The practice of acknowledging what activates your pressure points and engaging coping mechanisms to address them, empowers you to be proactive in stressful encounters.
You should regularly, spend time visualizing and practicing edifying self-talk. If you are feeling overwhelmed, choosing to keep your head in the sand, will only prolong your agony. Instead, you should tackle your issue or concern head on to minimize its initial impact as well as any possible long-term effects. Next, focus on eliminating circumstances that stimulate or magnify negative factors causing your distress. Commit to objectively evaluate each, challenge, and opportunity to heighten your focus. Spend time learning how to self-regulate so you can control your emotions. Self-regulation is your ability to manage your behavior. It is critical to thriving during pressure and should be incorporated as a practice to strengthen your personal resilience and intentionality. In other words, mastering the disciple of protecting and guiding your focus should be a daily practice and ongoing priority.
“Winning comes down to who can execute under pressure.” Billie Jean King
How do you handle stress and pressure? I’m suggesting one way is to search for opportunities in your obstacles. You should reassign obstacles, so they become a part of your “opportunity zone”. This a protected space designed to give you a safe place to envision constructive solutions. Making the decision to respond to pressure positively, is one way to boost creativity so you can go beyond simply coping with pressure to entering a sphere where you’ll thrive. Understanding the relationship between pressure and performance, positions you to view pressure as a positive force. In this state, you not only recognize your ability to choose, but you have a full realization of your capability and decision-making power; you are in command of your relationship to the situation because you choose how you will respond. Will the problem or challenge remains an obstacle, or will you see it for what it is, an opportunity to grow, to change, or to explore – it’ up to you?
We have all experienced the negative and positive effects of pressure. It’s time to realize that stressful circumstances are usually temporal, that’s why I suggest viewing them as potential pathways to opportunities. I realize, acknowledging that stress and pressure can be processed through a lens of impediments or approached with an attitude of discovery, is not a new idea. It can, however, be transformational, if embraced. There is considerable anecdotal evidence of individuals who thrived once they chose to recognize pressure as something positive. Framing it as an opportunity, enables you to approach potentially negative, tense times with a higher level of confidence and an expectation to flourish. People who overcome obstacles and conquer obstructions by guiding themselves and others through instances of pressure are perceived as effective leaders. They are viewed as such because of the precision in navigating their emotions and feelings of overwhelm.
You can increase your success ratio of thriving during pressure if you concentrate on “process over outcome”. This practice, is currently, trending and gaining momentum in the sports and business worlds. It’s a method of focusing on daily actions that lead you to your goals rather than placing all your energy on the result. The idea is that you control what you can “in the moment”, while you’re moving toward your desired outcome.
Since too much pressure can make you feel like you can’t cope, you should redirect your attention away from the pressure and aim your efforts on the steps that help you get the results you desire. Minimize pressure by concentrating on each individual task needed to accomplish your goal, instead of trying to sprint towards the desired result from the start line. While no one really wants to eat an elephant, but if you had to, the best way, is one bite at a time. Your effectiveness is greater, and stress is reduced when you approach projects by arranging them in smaller, more manageable steps. You begin with the end in mind, however you direct your attention to the steps needed to accomplish your over-arching goals, in bite-sizes.
Create a “pressure-to-performance” vision plan. Think about your core values and the kind of person you desire to become. For instance, “I want to approach pressure situations with calm”, I want to think positively”, “I want to be in-charge of my emotions at all times”. Once you’ve created your vision plan, the next step is to rehearse how you will respond when presented with pressure. Visualize and practice your responses. For example, if you must deliver a presentation on a new project, practice sharing the material until you are thoroughly confident. Visualize being in control as you give your delivery. Mentally, view yourself giving a flawless performance and imagine how you will feel. This should not be a one-time exercise. You must continue to work on your skills, visualization and regulating your emotional behavior. Your daily ritual should include being positive before, during, and after high-pressure moments. The better you become at channeling and redirecting pressure towards creating a positive performance and response the sooner you will experience success in reaching your goals. You will continue to increase your ability to handle pressure and stressful situations by working on cultivating a positive attitude.
“Life isn’t meant to be lived perfectly…but merely to be LIVED. Boldly, wildly, beautifully, uncertainly, imperfectly, magically LIVED.” ― Mandy Hale
- Share the Pressure – Ask for Help
You should not be afraid to ask for help if you feel under too much pressure. According to Weisinger and Pawliw-Fry, authors of Performing Under Pressure, telling someone else about the pressure you’re feeling has been proven to reduce anxiety and stress. They stated, “You may not be the only one feeling the heat. If you’re under pressure about a work project, there’s a good chance raising the issue will make everyone feel less alone”.
Establishing a network to serve as support is another way to increase your probability of thriving during pressure. Don’t wait until a crisis or stressful situation develops. You must be proactive, create your support team, now. Your support network should consist of colleagues, friends, family, business associates, or whoever is appropriate to offer advice or help.
There are times you may experience pressure when you worry about living up to your own or other people’s expectations – internal pressures. You may also feel pressure in situations that you have no control over, and when you don’t have the time or the means to do what is being demanded of you – external pressures. If you find yourself about to lose your sense of control or feeling anxious or worried, realize you are not alone and ask for help. Remember that you have others that are willing and equipped to assist you.
Lastly, it’s important to recognize the small steps that you have been able to make and the progress you’ve made as result of the assistance from your support team. So, don’t forget to thank them and show your appreciation. Remember, completing smaller tasks as you are moving to accomplishing your larger project will help you and others who supported you, feel good about your achievements. It will build morale and reinforce the support team’s confidence as they help you work through long-term initiatives.
“Being able to work as part of a team is essential. You learn to give as well as receive support.” Liz Halliday
How to thrive during pressure is ultimately up to the choices you make to manage your responses, practicing mindfulness to cultivate opportunities when presented with obstacles, and the network you establish.
