Pressure as a Positive

Mar 02, 2021

So often I hear that someone hates pressure, yet amazingly most times they fail to realise that usually they have not put enough pressure on themselves to perform well.

Whenever I've put juniors on court with a top player, they have focused better than ever, performed better than ever, so frightened to not give the top player a good practice. This in front of a crowd at some of the biggest tournaments in the world. The same player will say on court 21 in a junior tournament he/she put too much pressure on themselves?

Pressure says you are doing well. The higher you climb the more pressure you will face, but surely this is a good thing and a measure of the fact that you're actually doing better. If you want very little pressure do very little.

Jessica Ennis would not have felt pressure once she was on the track and focused fully on what she had to do. Fully present - no distractions - just does her stuff with the confidence that she had already reached the level needed to win. Rather than make her complacent it spurs her on to put it all out there to make it as tough as possible for her opponents.

The best handle the most pressure, so you cannot say you want to be one of the best but don't want/like pressure. This is mixed messaging to the subconscious brain. 

Pressure is a positive measure of how well you are progressing. 

Elon Musk could easily retire. Instead he brings enormous pressure onto himself because he knows that anything worthwhile brings pressure and this is the essence of having fun as a creative being. 

Pressure brings fear into the equation when we begin to think of consequences, when the mind wanders to the past or future. 

Pressure does not exist in the present when performing, so our lifelong struggle is to keep bringing ourselves back to the present so we can perform without fear.

Believe in your processes and learn to focus without distraction. This can be practiced in everyday life. Be there!

Written by David Sammel