Rule No. 6
Two prime ministers are sitting in a room discussing affairs of state. Suddenly a man bursts in, apoplectic with fury, shouting and stamping and banging his fist on the desk. The resident prime minister admonishes him: “Peter,” he says, “kindly remember Rule Number 6,” whereupon Peter is instantly restored to complete calm, apologizes, and withdraws. The politicians return to their conversation, only to be interupted yet again twenty minutes later by an hysterical woman gesticulating wildly, her hair flying. Again ...
How To Shine When You’re On the Spot (Or How To Avoid Choking Under Pressure, Part II)
This week, we’re going to talk about how to be at your best when you’re taken off guard. That’s what one listener wanted to know during my interview with performance psychologist Dr. Noa Kageyama at the Mental Toughness Summit last April: “What do you do when you’re put on the spot by your boss or board of directors?” As Noa pointed out, our general tendency is to blurt out an answer without taking a moment to collect our thoughts. Then ...
Why You Choke Under Pressure – And How To Avoid It, Part I
Blowing a high-stakes presentation, flubbing a chance conversation with a senior partner in the elevator, bombing the exam you studied months for – choking under pressure is 1) really painful and 2) usually means lost opportunities. What’s funny is that while it was our brainpower that’s instrumental in getting us to that point of achievement, it’s also the culprit that sabotages our performance. (Okay, it’s not that funny.) The good news is you can train your brain to help, not ...
Fight-or-Flight: It’s Now Optional
Imagine it’s 1 million BC and you’re Zog, the caveman. Every day you wake up with one mission: to go out and hunt for food to feed you and your family. At the same time, you have to constantly be on the lookout for the predators that want to eat you. That primitive, automatic instinct that prepares us to “fight” or “flee” from a perceived attack or threat to our survival came in very handy when we ran into a ...
