Fear of Performance

What is the fear of performance?

How is performance anxiety related?

Imagine that you are about to present your idea or project in front of the management of your company or colleagues. You are confident because you have spent a lot of time studying, planning or preparing it. But when it comes to the moment of the presentation, something goes wrong. When you stay in front of the people you might even know personally, suddenly your hand, legs or even mimic muscles start shaking. Your heart is beating like a drum and you are in lack of air. Don’t worry, what is happening to you is a very common problem, called Fear of performance. The fear of performance or performance anxiety means different things to each one of us. Usually, we imagine an actor, singer, stand up comedian, or maybe a politician struggling in front of a huge audience – this feeling is known also as a  Stagefright.

The truth is, performance anxiety can occur literally in any kind of social interaction. It arises not only during an artistic performance or formal speaking (teaching, presenting, selling) but also during a spontaneous conversation, for example when you are trying to tell a story or a joke in front of a group of your friends.

Performance anxiety and social anxiety

How is social anxiety related to the fear of performance?

Is it alright to have a fear of performance from time to time?

What is the fight-or-flight mode?

For sure it is alright to be freaking out of huge crowd presence from time to time. More difficult it becomes when your performance anxiety turns to social anxiety. Social anxiety is the anxiety disorder of the last decades. Mainly because of the uprising of modern technologies, ever-present stress and never-ending pressure for high and five-star performance. Due to these facts, people could push themselves out of the sensible border. They could stop feeling comfortable meeting other people, talking to them face to face, not mentioning working with them.

Performance anxiety can start processes of not only psychical delusions, feelings of uselessness and redundancy. The performance anxiety even possibly starts physical “fight-or-flight” mechanisms, which are similar to symptoms that occur when you are in the danger of your own life.

Symptoms include sweating and cold hands concurrently with trembling knees, hands or wany voice. For example, you know a feeling of dry mouth and bouncing heart, which seems. to be out of control because of your very fast breathing. Someone who is truly stressed out can experience also vision changes. Everyone has experienced at least one of these symptoms in a lifetime. 

 

How to overcome Performance anxiety

How to overcome Performance anxiety?

What can you do, when and before those feelings come alive?

Limiting your caffeine and sugar daily intake is a good beginning. Then you can continue with adding a little self-aware in a confident, optimistic way by avoiding negative thoughts and unnecessary mindset patterns.

Connection with an audience is a beneficial form of fighting stress and nerves. Be just yourself and you will see, the performance on a stage will go much easier and natural. You can forget about your fear, when you are focusing on the enjoyment you bring to your spectators. 

The mind state

Can you influence the performance anxiety?

How is Mind State training important for your business?

The latest resource for creating the „high-performance mind“ is “mind state“ training. You are the master of your mind and emotions, nobody else is. You can begin with coaching your mind each minute of a day. Be nice, enjoyable and playful to your mind and you will see, it will not betrail you. Mind State Training is an integral tool in the Berent model of treatment.

Prospective leadership contains numerous pieces of training like the mind state training. Businessmen’s attitudes and manners are crucial for the growth of an individual and an organization. Due to this, an entrepreneur has a tough responsibility to himself (herself) and the organization in general.

Living in the right mindset can have a huge impact on the future, on the destiny of all trades. Attitude determines the ability to grow and to learn, exceed questions, the last but not least learn how to connect with other people. In the best scenario, you apply positive thinking in your everyday life, whether professional or private.

There exist various opportunities for how we can conquer negativity in our lives. We will mention some of them. Each person should try their way to eliminate negativity.

First, try to control the time you are spending on your negative thoughts, whatever important issues they are concerning about. Negative Thought Time (NTT) must be 10 minutes and must be every day. 

Next, we need to admit that we will have negative thoughts and we couldn’t get rid of them completely. An essential moment is not to believe everything that crosses our minds.  Another move is to very simply „come to your senses“. More easy said than done, right? When you feel it is your „anxiety time“, use all the force you have and bring out your common sense.  Keep questioning all your thoughts and each step. Don’t forget – the same principle for positive ideas and negative thought patterns both, in your private life and business.

Psychological tips and tricks

Is there any chance to handle performance anxiety?

For inspiration, you have plenty of different psychological tips and tricks to overcome anxiety so you can live a happy and calm life. Don’t be afraid to think about them – Everything will be easier then.

“Just keep in mind: the more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.” Epictetus