3 Secrets to Beat Performance Anxiety
Performance anxiety makes us second-guess everything from how to shoot a free throw to what to say next in an interview. Here are three ways to bring it under pressure!
IN THIS ARTICLE YOU’LL DISCOVER
- How the language you use can help to eleviate performance anxiety
- The case for pre-performance rituals
- A movement hack that can give your affirmations more impact
Listener Adeel from England wrote in to ask how he can perform better under pressure. Adeel has spoken English as a second language for many years and has excellent communication skills. But he notes that in high-pressure situations, he sometimes gets anxious and the words don’t come, plus his accent becomes more pronounced. What can he do to remedy this?
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Performance Anxiety Is Universal
Anyone who’s ever been in a similar situation—and that’s all of us—can empathize. Even with tasks we’ve done a million times—like speaking a second language, walking up stairs, or navigating the grocery store—under pressure or observation, we get psyched out. We lose the most basic skills. A friend told me that once, during a lunch interview, she overthought how to swallow and had to sit for a few moments with a mouth full of iced tea before she could collect herself and figure it out.
It’s universal: pressure, whether it’s pushing down on me or pressing down on you, makes us second-guess how to hold the putter, work the laser pointer, or pronounce niche (is it “neesh?” Or “nitch?”), even though we usually do it without a thought.
It’s universal: pressure, whether it’s pushing down on me or pressing down on you, makes us second-guess ourselves.
So what can you do in the moment? Whether you’re trying to ace an audition, nail a presentation, shoot a free throw, or spell “koinonia” for the win at the National Spelling Bee, how can you pull out all the stops without losing your cool?
This week, let’s get it done with these three tips.
Tip #1: Get excited
The researchers behind a hilarious but solid study in the Journal of Experimental Psychologyopens PDF file made participants sing the opening lines of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
But right before the small town girl took that midnight train, each participant was assigned to say a statement at random, and—importantly—to try their best to believe it. They were assigned: “I am anxious,” “I am excited,” “I am calm,” “I am angry,” “I am sad,” or no statement at all.
Next, voice recognition software scored each performance on volume, pitch, and note duration.
Which group performed worst? You guessed it: the group that said “I am anxious.” That makes sense.
But who performed the best? You might think it was the group that stated “I am calm,” which is what we often try to tell ourselves before a big moment. But instead, it was the group that said “I am excited” before belting about that city boy born and raised in south Detroit.
Why is this? Before a big moment, we get physiologically activated. All bodily systems are go, and it’s hard to slow a racing heart and jangling nerves, even when we tell ourselves to calm down.
So rather than trying to change our physiology, we can change our mindset by saying “I am excited.” This changes our view of the task from a threat to an opportunity. Threats result in anxiety, but opportunities make us enthusiastic. Seeing the task as something we get to do rather than something we have to do subsequently improves our performance. After all, everybody wants a thrill.
Tip #2: Get a grip (using a ritual)
Back in the days of The Colbert Report, host Stephen Colbert had a distinct backstage ritual before taping the show. He’d ring a bell in the studio bathroom, listen to his producer say “squeeze out some sunshine,” touch the hands of each person who worked backstage (saving the prompter operator for last), chew on a type of discontinued Bic pen, and slap himself in the face twice.
Much less complicated but no less scripted rituals occur in sports of all kinds. Take golf: Tiger Woods has a pre-putting routine that lasts precisely 18 seconds: check alignment, adjust feet, two looks at the ball, and then putt.
Or basketball: Karl Malone would dribble the ball and mutter under his breath. To this day, no one knows what he said to himself. Whatever it was, it worked: he holds the record for most free throws ever.
Karl Malone would dribble the ball and mutter under his breath. To this day, no one knows what he said to himself.
Colloquially, people sometimes refer to pre-performance routines as being “OCD,” but OCD is different. An OCD ritual (the compulsion) is done in response to an anxiety-provoking thought (the obsession). The purpose of the ritual is to neutralize anxiety. By contrast, the purpose of the pre-performance routine is to regulate physiological arousal, focus concentration, and put the body on autopilot so it can execute a move that would otherwise be hampered by overthinking.
Despite the fact that everyone from Karl Malone to your local high school point guard has a routine, the scientific jury is still out on exactly how rituals work. A meta-analysis of pre-performance routines from sports as diverse as bowling, water polo, gymnastics, and rugby showed that hypotheses and anecdotal evidence abound, but the research has yet to understand precisely what function all this bouncing and muttering and knee-bending and kiss-blowing actually serves.
Until then, go ahead and try it. At worst, you buy yourself a quiet moment. At best, you’ll reap the benefits of improved concentration and a smooth entry into your next move.
Tip #3: Give yourself the nod. Literally!
From a study in the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology comes a subtle yet powerful move.
The researchers asked 150 CrossFit members to participate in a study, ostensibly about the use of headphones while working out.
The researchers divided the participants into two groups. One group was asked to write and audiorecord three positive statements about their current physical fitness—things like “I’m in really good physical condition” or “I have trained very hard every day”—or three negative statements, such as “I get injured way too often” or “I feel more tired than usual.”
Next, each participant listened to their own recorded statements through a set of headphones and were told the headphones were being tested for factors like comfort and fit.
To test this, they were asked to move their heads up and down—nodding in agreement without actually being told to nod—or to shake their heads side to side, essentially shaking their heads in disagreement.
Then each participant was asked to do a vertical jump, 30 squats, and four deadlifts. What happened? The participants who nodded yes along to their positive statements turbocharged their athletic performance, jumping, squatting, and deadlifting the best of all the participants. Those who nodded along to their negative statements deflated their performance, performing the worst. And those who disagreed with the positive or negative? The effects of their statements were neutralized.
Secretly, the researchers wanted to know if the physical movements of affirmation or refutation can amplify whatever we’re telling ourselves. The conclusion? Yes they can.
So, when you tell yourself “I’ve got this,” or even better, “I’m excited,” nod along. Your body is paying attention.
To wrap it all up, go with the flow of your physiology and tell yourself you’re excited, which creates opportunity. Ground yourself with a ritual, which creates focus. And nod along as you talk yourself through, which creates affirmation. In a world where some will win, some will lose, and some were born to sing the blues, you’ll be sure to pull off a great performance right when it matters most.
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About the Author
Dr. Ellen Hendriksen was the host of the Savvy Psychologist podcast from 2014 to 2019. She is a clinical psychologist at Boston University’s Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders (CARD). She earned her Ph.D. at UCLA and completed her training at Harvard Medical School. Her scientifically-based, zero-judgment approach is regularly featured in Psychology Today, Scientific American, The Huffington Post, and many other media outlets. Her debut book, HOW TO BE YOURSELF: Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety, was published in March 2018.
