Mental Strategies to Defeat Performance Anxiety

Self-doubt is a pretty normal thing. Asking yourself “Can I do this?” is generally a healthy response to a new and/or stressful situations. Humans evolved to be able to evaluate risk.

The problem comes when our lizard brain – the oldest part of our neurological programming – is trying to sense threats in a world with a lot more going on than scanning the horizon for a predator.

Today’s threats

In many cases, today’s perceived threats are purely mental or emotional responses to a challenging situation.

Athlete threats

If you’re an athlete, performing under pressure is one of the best parts of competition. The “thrill of victory” really only happens if we’ve had to overcome some form of challenge or difficulty.

Unfortunately, when we’re in the wrong mindset, these opportunities are perceived as threats. We don’t feel safe in these moments (something I talked about in a recent newsletter) and therefore our threat response jumps to the rescue(?).

The self-doubt kicks in along with other negative emotions, usually crippling our ability to perform.

Personal threats

I’m not talking about being physically threatened by someone. I’m talking about the mental or emotional threats that we perceive due to our past history or trauma. The things we might take personally that would slide off someone else’s back, or that wouldn’t bother us in a different situation.

An innocuous comment such as “Can I help you with that?” can be perceived as a threat – triggering a wave of emotions. These can range from self-doubt to anger and hostility.

I’m not going to dig into this area because it’s far from my area of expertise. I’m just aware of how history and past trauma can seriously impact our world-view.

I simply wanted to make the point that your perception is what creates most of the threats in your mind these days. Most of us aren’t struggling to survive in the way that our ancestors were when that programming was hard-wired into us.

No matter the case, these perceived threats can put you into the yellow or the red state.

Stuck in the yellow (or red)

I recently wrote about positive triggers and the three steps that I’ve used and coached in the past to help get back into the green.

But what if you’re a bit more stuck than usual? What if the self-doubt (or anger or frustration) keeps its grip on you as you try get back into a better mindset? The answer depends on the situation and I want to focus this blog on what I call “perform-now” moments.

Perform-now moments

In a situation where you don’t have time to stop for any sort of deep reflection, and need to get out of the red or yellow as quickly as possible, there are a few mental tricks that can act as a sort of band-aid.

By now, most people are aware how important breathing and body language are. They are both affected by your mental state and also they have the capacity to influence it right back.

So breathing techniques like the box breath, or adjusting your body language can help shift the mood and kickstart your mindset back to the green.

I wanted to add one other mental technique that most people don’t know about. It’s called thought-stopping.

What is thought-stopping?

Thought-stopping is a visualization technique. It’s usefulness rests on the simple truth that your mind is looking for something to do. You can’t simply stop thinking about something. You need to replace those thoughts.

Thought-stopping is very simple: it calls attention to a behavior or thought that you’d like to stop, and then replaces it with another one that you’ve prepared beforehand. Once you’re aware of some negative thoughts you’d like to get rid of temporarily, it works like this:

Visualize a “stop” signal. Maybe a referee whistle, maybe a train crossing, or a stop sign. Maybe it’s a pause button on a tv remote. Whatever works for you. The important thing is to remember to make it detailed and use sounds where necessary.

This acknowledges and confronts the negative thoughts, signifying a time to switch.

Use some self-talk. This should be something you’ve prepared beforehand. Usually some encouragement or a verbal cue that you can shift to something else. You might skip this and opt for the self-talk to be after the positive visualization.

Now for some positive visualization. This doesn’t have to be something “happy” or what you’re switching to. It just needs to be be something that evokes good feelings or confidence or both.

I’ve always liked wolves, so my transition visual was of a wolf, usually baring it’s teeth. In competition, my yellow was often marked by hesitation so I wanted an aggressive visual to spark that side of me.

Now switch to your positive thought. Depending on your use of this technique (for example in a competitive/sports setting) this could be a form of self-talk/mantra.

It could change with the situation – because dealing with an upset child is different from dealing with a problematic co-worker.

Either way, you’re giving your mind something specific to focus on that isn’t the negative thought from before. Again, positive doesn’t necessarily mean happy in the style of sunshine and rainbows.

It’s more about giving your mind a positive direction to go, a purpose.

Now go! From here, you start (or get back to) what you wanted to do with confidence.

Use your breath, body language and thought-stopping to essentially neutralize that perceived threat and get back to performing at your best.

Digging deeper

It’s important to understand that what I’ve presented here is essentially a band-aid. It’s another tool you can use to help get out of the yellow or red when you’ve gone a bit deeper into those colours.

What this doesn’t do is take away the perception of a threat, so the next time that situation comes up, you’ll likely still feel the same negative thoughts and emotions.

Once you’re out of the “perform now” moment, you should devote some time to examining that perceived threat and your response, so you can attempt to re-wire it completely.

That’s the bigger piece of work, but it pays off in the long term much more than continually using band aids.