Handling Pressure

Pressure is inevitable if one wants to lead a life worth living. Pressure comes in many shapes and forms, mostly it is internal or external to a person. If considering the day of writing this – I have the internal pressure of not wanting to break the streak of weekly posts.

Handling pressure is difficult. The most difficult for me is when I have a public speech or performance I find myself overthinking small details that tend to be unimportant.

There is an exercise to work through the anxiety in preparation for the performance. Anxiety is a bunch of what-ifs that are never really thought out fully. The exercise to be done is "What is the true worst that can happen?" Getting to the end usually shows that it is not so bad.

For example, I have an event coming up where I will be behind the DJ decks in front of my whole year (probably 150-ish people). The absolute worst that can happen is that I mess up a transition from one song to another and there is just an awkward silence. Even then, like it's a single mistake, people forget it fast if you move on and do not make a big deal out of it.

That brings me to the next point. When doing the deed, embrace the mistakes. Most importantly stay in movement. Either point out the mistake or do not, but make it quick and funny if you do. "Well, that was awkward.. Moving on –" Mistakes will happen, it is about how you react to them not so much about the mistakes themselves.

Finally, speaking from a more general perspective. Practise helps. It does not make perfect, but it helps. Some of the biggest artists still have anxiety on tour after having performed 13 nights in a row. It makes sense, if you do not feel anything you're either a psycho or intoxicated out of this world(not a very viable solution).

To conclude, think it through, it is not as bad as you think. Once something goes wrong, smoothly move on from it. If you make it a habit of putting yourself out there, it will become easier!

This Week's Suggestions:

🎶"Pressure" by Martin Garrix featuring Tove Lo:

Felt like a good song to go with this post. It came out a little while ago, but still is an amazing song. Give it a listen!

💡 "Become excellent. Be unreasonable.":

I happened on another Big Think video, like last week. This time it is about hospitality, unreasonable hospitality to be precise. Have a look, it is a great little nugget of advice once again.

Till next Monday!