Thrive Under Pressure: 10 Tactics for Peak Performance

Imagine this scenario. You’ve been training for 10 years; each week working on your skills and physical abilities for hours each day. That’s hours of focused, deep work every day for years. And you have done all this for the chance to test yourself against other people who have trained just as hard as you. But you only get one chance to test yourself. And this chance must happen on a specified day, in fact at a specified time on that day. And you know that day and time years in advance. You know exactly when you’ll have to perform, and it has to be at your peak.

Olympians are specialists in such peak performances. They can’t afford to “hope” that things will come together for them on a specific date at a specific time. They therefore have to employ specific techniques to supercharge their bodies and brains so that they get the most out of themselves right when they need to. Once again, the great thing about learning how Olympians do it is that any of us can apply these same techniques to peak for events in our own lives – presentations, key meetings, exams, performances, even conversations!

Peak performance is most extensively studied in athletes and has repeatedly been defined as feeling effortless, automatic, and calm, with minimal to no distractions or conscious thoughts during the performance. The peak performance you strive for in your life may also be something physical, like a personal best on the tennis court or in the city marathon. Or it may be more creative, expressed on a canvas or keyboard. Or it may be related to your work performance, perhaps bringing a new project to life or presenting to a room full of colleagues.

So how can you achieve peak performance when you’re under pressure or doing something important to you? Here are some suggestions.

Eliminate external distractions. Multitasking is easier and more tempting than ever with the ubiquitous nature of handheld technologies and constant media distractions. A literature review investigating the effects of media multitasking and academic performance found that using two or more media at the same time, such as texting, emailing, or browsing social media, negatively interfered with working memory and attention in an academic setting. This interference reduced the efficiency, GPA, test performance, recall, self-regulation, and note-taking abilities of students. So next time you’re doing an activity that is important to you, put away your smart phone and eliminate as many other external distractions as you can to encourage peak performance.

Listen to music. According to exercise physiologist Costas Karageorghis, music can both psych us up (usually higher tempo, 120-130 beats per minute) or calm us down (usually lower tempo, 70-90 beats per minute). Music shifts us into an optimal psychological state and influences blood pressure and heart rate, which are both necessary for optimal performance. For example, aerial skier Marion Thénault has both “Whatever It Takes” by Imagine Dragons (135 beats per minute) and the slower hip hop song “Hall of Fame” by the Script featuring Will.i.am on her pre-competition playlist. Music is very individualized when it comes to performance, so experiment and find something that works for you.

Move your body. Movement increases your heart rate and gets your blood flowing. You’ll often see athletes pacing, jogging, or jumping up and down before a race to get themselves amped up. For example, as a part of his pre-race routine, swimming legend Michael Phelps used to swing his arms and repeatedly slap himself.. These psych-up techniques work by increasing intensity and arousal, subsequently improving performance.

Use high-energy positive self-talk. Self-talk is one of the most powerful tools in our psychological toolbox. Repeating high-energy phrases or positive mantras, such as “I can win this” or “Attack” keeps us motivated and in a state of high energy and focus, while negative self-talk such as “There is no way I can win” has the opposite effect. For example, Bill Rodgers, former marathon world record holder, used the mantra “Relentless” to spur himself on during his gruelling races and went on to become one of the greatest distance runners of the 1970s and 80s.

Calm Down. Hang on, how is calming down a more advanced technique for achieving peak performance than psyching up? That’s doesn’t make sense. Except it does, and here’s why: In the face of launching into a performance where you want to be your best, where you want to reach your peak, where you want to rock the world (and yourself), there’s nothing harder than achieving a state of mental and emotional calm. And, in some ways, nothing more critical.

Breathe. By now, you know all about deep breathing exercises, which work by slowing your heart rate and stimulating the vagus nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system, triggering a relaxing and stress-relieving response. Olympic cyclist Laura Kenny worked with psychologists to implement a breathing-based systematic muscle relaxation technique to optimize her performance and reduce anxiety at the 2016 Rio Games.

Release tension. Your physical responses to stress are the easiest to recognize. When stress levels rise, your breathing becomes shallow, and you might clench your jaw or tense your muscles. Notice whether this happens and take a moment to consciously relax your face, shoulders, hands, stomach muscles, back, legs, and feet. Beginning at your head and working down, scan your body and release tension each time you exhale.

Visualize. As the most decorated Olympian of all time with 28 medals, former swimmer Michael Phelps used visualization to deal with the intense pressure by imagining every possible scenario before a race and exactly how he would deal with it. By visualizing both the expected and the unexpected, Phelps prepared himself for anything, so that when he was actually faced with a particular situation, it did not feel foreign and he was better able to manage his stress and nerves. In this way, visualization is an effective strategy to boost both motivation and performance while calming your nerves. 

Focus on the process, not the outcome. Refocusing on the process of the performance rather than the outcome has been the most important element of peak performance that I have been teaching for the last few years. Research backs this approach up. Mastery-oriented individuals are more intrinsically motivated, are more interested in the task at hand, are more likely to complete a task for its own sake, and will persist for longer. Because of this, mastery-oriented individuals are also much more likely to experience flow and peak performance. So think less about the outcome and enjoy the process instead.

Adopt a ritual. Research shows that rituals help us buffer against anxiety and uncertainty to guide goal-directed performance. An excellent example of this is two-time Olympic slopestyle gold medallist Jamie Anderson. Anderson credits her calm, confident, and focused demeanor at the Sochi Olympics in 2014 to her pre-race ritual based around calming meditation.

I hope at least 1 of those 10 ideas resonates with you. Give them a try and let me know how it goes!

Remember to rest, relax, and prepare yourself before the big event, whether that means taking a break from practising (a speech or presentation or musical piece) or taking some pre-performance time to breathe, visualize, and so on. These calming techniques lead to greater adaptation, greater reserves of strength and energy, and better performance—possibly even peak performance.