Anticipating
Stress - Managing
stress by preparing for it
Introduction:
This tool brings together a number of simple
techniques that help you to anticipate the
stresses that come with important performances,
and take early action to manage them. These
are rehearsal, reducing uncertainty, and
reducing the importance of the event.
Using the Tool:
Reducing Uncertainty:
In preparing for an event, uncertainty about
key factors can cause high levels of stress.
Uncertainty can also lead you to make mistakes
in your preparation that then undermine
your performance.
You need to know different things for different
types of performance. For example, a presentation
to the board of your organization will need
different information from an athletic or
artistic performance. From your circumstances,
you should be able to identify the sort
of uncertainties that you might face.
Examples of these uncertainties may include:
- The size of your audience and the situation
or environment you will be performing
in
- What the audience wants to get out of
your performance
- Where your performance occurs within
the program and what will have happened
before it
- The mood that the audience will be in.
Are they likely to be skeptical or hostile,
or are they (as in many cases) likely
to be well disposed to you?
- Will the audience want to question you?
Do you need to prepare for questioning?
- What else will be happen during your
performance? What distractions are you
likely to experience?
- What technology will support your performance
(equipment, lights, sound, data projectors,
etc)? What preparations have been made
in case the technology fails?
Without clarification of these uncertainties,
there is a high risk that you will be wrong-footed
if your assumptions are incorrect or if
something goes wrong.
Asking the questions that reduce this sort
of uncertainty is all part of preparing
professionally for the event. If you ask
in a positive way, then people are usually
quite happy to help.
Rehearsal:
The next technique, Rehearsal, is well known
and regularly used in many, many situations.
However, it is included here for completeness.
Rehearsing for a stressful event such as
an interview or a speech helps you to polish
your performance and build confidence. Each
time you rehearse your performance, you
make the flow of words or actions smoother
and more polished. Also, practice allows
you to spot potential problems with the
performance and have the ability and time
beforehand, to change and eliminate these
problems. As you rehearse your performance,
you can identify any areas that may cause
you difficulty, and can change things appropriately.
Ultimately, the more you repeat what you
are going to say and the actions you will
take, the more these become automatic. The
more they become automatic, the more you
are able to repeat them and perform well
when under pressure.
The success of this approach in the extreme
can be seen with the rehearsal conducted
by people like fire fighters and the military:
Their constant repetition of key skills
ensures they can perform automatically and
optimally, even under intense survival stress.
Reducing the Importance
of an Event:
When an event is important to you, this
can make it very stressful. This is particularly
true when you are operating at a high level,
or when many people are watching. It can
also be true when there is the prospect
of a large financial reward, promotion,
or personal advancement if you perform well.
The presence of family, friends or important
people can add to this pressure.
If stress is a problem under these circumstances,
then think carefully about the event, and
take every opportunity to reduce its importance
in your eyes:
- If the event seems big, put it in its
place along the path to your goals. Compare
it in your mind with bigger events you
might know of, or might have attended.
- If there is a financial reward, remind
yourself that there may be other opportunities
for reward later, and this may not be
the only chance you have. Focus on the
quality of your performance. Focusing
on the rewards will only damage your concentration
and raise stress.
- If members of your family are watching,
remind yourself that they love you anyway.
If friends are real friends, they will
continue to like you whatever happens.
- Switch your focus from your own feelings,
and think about what your audience wants
to get out of the event. Concentrating
your attention on delivering this will
distract you from worrying about yourself.
If you focus on the correct performance
of your tasks, then the importance of the
event will dwindle into the background.
Summary:
By anticipating stressful situations, you
can prepare for them. By making sure of
your facts, and getting a complete understanding
of the situation, you can ensure that you
are properly prepared, and that you are
not wrong-footed by predictable situations
and events.
By rehearsing properly and fully, you can
polish your performance and identify and
eliminate problems with it. By rehearsing
your performance often enough, you can make
it almost automatic. This helps you to enter
the state of flow we talked about earlier,
turning a stressful event into an enjoyable
and pleasurable experience.
Finally, by reducing the importance of
the event, you place it in its proper context.
This helps you to reduce stress and gain
a fair sense of perspective.
In the next article, we look at managing
the negative
thinking that can undermine a good performance...
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