Tales from the performance anxiety crypt — Bergford Performance Systems

One of the most horrifying experiences a person can have is seizing up with performance anxiety.

We all have important moments when we have to be "on", and how we do in those moments is highly consequential to our future.

Athletes are perhaps most familiar with this crippling angst.

They have all of their blood, sweat, and tears from days, months, and years of training on the line when competition day arrives.

And all of the bright lights – as well as the eyes of everyone in the crowd – are focused on them.

There’s nowhere to hide.

One would think that accomplished athletes have this mastered (and some of them do), but I can assure you there are a surprising number who still struggle with crippling performance anxiety at times.

Imagine having everything on the line, people expecting great things from you, and loads of money and a championship or Olympic medal at stake.

But you’re one of the best so you’ll be fine right?

Right…

Until the anxiety monster creeps in and the choking starts.

More often than you might imagine, the best person doesn’t win – even in sports, and with a completely level playing field.

Being a swimmer myself, one of the prime examples that comes immediately to mind is the much-dreaded Olympic Trials.

Every four years, the greatest swimmers in the U.S. gather to test their mettle at Trials for the opportunity to gain a spot on the Olympic Team.

I’ve heard multiple gold medalists talk about how Trials is more nerve-racking than competing at the actual Olympic Games.

So there’s a lot of pressure, to say the least.

And every time the Trials take place, nerves get the better of some of the greatest athletes there, and they – much to everyone’s surprise – have "their spot" on the Olympic Team snatched away by someone considered to be far less "qualified" to go.

So yeah – performance anxiety is a humongo problem.

And it most definitely affects business people and professionals and artists and… everyone on the planet.

It’s an especially prominent feature in the lives of people who have a lot of ambition and push themselves with regularity.

But sports and athletic endeavors is where this phenomenon is most universal and obvious in its dastardly effects to the onlookers.

Now, if this performance anxiety demon is a death dealer to people’s dreams, what can one do to keep out of its grasp (and out of the dreaded crypt)?

Well, the short answer is by turning performance anxiety around on itself.

That’s what the guys and gals do who, like clockwork, "come out of nowhere" at Olympic Trials every four years and send gold medalist swimmers packing.

No: they aren’t nearly as talented, often times.

And they ain’t the best swimmers on earth.

But on that day, they have their mental game so dialed in that they are able to dethrone some who are the greatest swimmers on earth.

And they did it by turning the very thing that caused the other athletes to choke – performance anxiety – into psychological jet fuel.

So while the tales from the performance anxiety crypt are plenteous, there are just as many tales of victory, with the men and women being separated from the boys and girls by the elixir of proper Mental Training and Psychological Architecture.

The six inches between your ears can spell victory or defeat, and elevate or erase, years of dedicated physical training, depending on how it’s built, and then deployed come gameday.

So whether you’re an athlete or not, make sure you’re giving due attention to your mental strategy, because all of us encounter do-or-die moments where everything’s on the line.

And our mind can make us or break us.

So if you are, or know, an athlete or team who wants to stay on top (and out of the crypt), this guy has plenty of experience helping people slay the performance anxiety beast:

https://www.bergfordperformance.com/speaking
https://www.bergfordperformance.com/coaching

– Brian Bergford