Want to reduce Stress and Performance anxiety for next Presentation?

Deliberate practice, good preparation in knowing your topic,  and an authentic connection pays big dividends in reducing performance anxiety. Next time you need to   present to an audience, follow these four steps:

1.Keep audience focused and interested by capturing their attention in the first 8 seconds of the speech. You want them to lean in and be curious about what you have to say–Check-out my past blog on how to accomplish this in as little as 8 seconds. http://thewick.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/

2. Be confident in your topic. Your audience already believes that you’re the expert, so don’t try to bluff. If the people you’re presenting to feel you’re unsure of your material, they’ll lose interest in your presentation.

3. Be ready for questions.  Imagine questions people might ask. Construct answers before you give your speech. Either incorporate the answers into your presentation or be ready to provide them during Q&A.

4. Memorize the first minute of your presentation. You experience your greatest anxiety at the beginning of a speech. Knowing the opening of your presentation will give you a good start.

5. Start with audience interactive activity–like completing a one page inventory on the topic to be presented , such as Stress Management. Have audience members complete self-awareness and goal setting sheet. Then use the Pair-Share discussion tool where audience members share with a neighbor their reactions to the inventory and one change goal for the day. After 10 min you can introduce yourself and do a de-brief. Everyone gets engaged and you learn about the audience members level of understanding and needs.

Sticky Presentation factors–Connecting through the eyes “One thought to one Person” and Pause.

Want to connect with your audience and reduce nervousness–Deliver one thought to one person in the room. Think about the physiology of vision.  Light enters the front of the eyeball, hits the rods and cones at the back of the eye, and creates an electrical impulse that shoots around the optic nerve to the optic lobe at the back of the skill.  Your brain then takes the better part of a second to decipher this electrical Morse code.  While the act of turning the electrical impulses into light, color and contrast is an unconscious brain activity, putting the shapes into a comprehensible context is a conscious brain activity.

Problem Explored

Eye contact or shifting-this is where we create a problem for ourselves as speakers. It is perfectly natural to look rapidly around the room when first standing in front of an audience.  This rapid eye movement creates visual over-stimulation.  It forces our brain to process incoming visual stimuli on a conscious level.  When speaking to a group, we have another conscious activity that is trying to occur simultaneously . . . the delivery of our prepared topic!  Our brains do not do two things at once very well, on a conscious level.  This is why our mind will sometimes go blank during the delivery of our prepared topic — to allow our brain to catch up on the processing of visual stimuli.

Solution to “shifting eyes” problem

Speakers naturally solve this problem by looking at ceilings and floors, where there is usually a blank space with little visual stimuli to process.  This works!  It would also work to close your eyes, as a speaker, to limit incoming visual stimulus.  For obvious reasons, closing your eyes would not be a good choice.  The most productive way to limit visual stimuli is to stare at the eye of an audience member.  (If you’re far enough away from your audience, you can stare at both their eyes at once.)  There are three advantages to limiting visual stimulus this way.

The benefits of controlled eye contact:

First, you can “read” the response from your audience as you deliver a whole thought to one individual.  Second, direct eye contact conveys sincerity in all cultures across the world.  Third, as a speaker, you get the advantage of limiting visual stimuli so you can think more clearly and reduce your nervousness. It is always nice to find a friendly face to interact with during the first few moments of your speech..

When pauses are added to this controlled eye contact technique, you enhance your  effectiveness and authenticity.  The pause packages your words into one cohesive thought at a time for the audience.  It also adds emphasis to the key points you wish to convey as a speaker.  Also, when you can’t think of what to say next, this pause buys you thinking time without giving away to the audience that your mind has gone momentarily blank. The mastery of this controlled eye contact technique + pause is the foundation skill for successfully talking to a group of people.

Assignment

For your next speech get it video taped or have a colleague checkout your eye movement and provide feedback on its effectiveness. Using this principle will help you in both delivery and connection with the audience. Good Luck.

Summary Technique process–Remember the technique–One thought One person. Pause and then turn your body and deliver another complete thought to another person. Have that moment of unique contact. Eye contact used effectively helps you connect and the more you can use it the more momentum and the less resistance you will have from the audience to your message..

Does anxiety hurt your performance? Learn about the “Suppression Factor”

You are ready to serve for the match and your playing partner says don’t double-fault or tries to encourage you by saying get  your first serve in. The result is a double-fault on match point because you tried so hard not to double fault. What is going on here? This incident is a perfect example of trying to hard to suppress your anxiety and not choking. When under pressure and specifically trying to avoid mentioning something or doing what you don’t want to do the negative thought, word or action can still find a way out of your  reptile brain because you become consciously incompetent because your emotions take over and try to hard  to suppress what you don’t want to do. There is a lot of research on this mental process that we call choking. Psychologist provide  two fancy words for this effect  the  “Suppression Factor”  

These thought processes are strongest when we try to hard or are stressed in some way. That’s why a lot of the time when wanting something so much you perform poorly. When you want to achieve a certain result strong emotions get attached to winning or controlling our behavior and we can cause the very behavior we want to control; think of the situation in wanting to fall asleep and we toss or turn all night or needing a three putt for par and take home the Golf Club Championship.

The main way to avoid all these problems is to find a way to relax, visualization, stick with your routine and this will distract the strong unconscious emotions. So instead of trying so hard at your next presentation, golf match or negative reactions to your boss. Stop, Take a deep breath, count to twenty and do what you want to do. If you are intrigued by this performance concept checkout the recent posting on the Psyblog or learn more about Relation at  thewick blog 

Be a Mountain–Exercise in Mindfulness and Reducing Stress

Be a Mountain Exercise

When feel tension or stress practice the following exercise by Dr. Jeffrey Brantley in his Book Five Good Minutes. 

This is a good practice for those times when you are feeling scattered, off balance, or unfocused. It allows you to reconnect with the elemental quality of earthiness and strength within. Doing this practice can ground you deeply in the present moment.

Stand or sit comfortably. Breathe mindfully for about a minute.

Set your intention. For example, “May this practice help me find inner strength.”

Imagine the most beautiful mountain you have ever seen, either in person or in a photograph.

As you visualize your mountain, let your body become the mountain. Feel the same qualities of steadiness,strength, unshakableness, and majesty.

For the next few minutes, rest in your “mountain body,” unmoved by any thoughts, fears, worries, or other experiences around you, just as the mountain

End by opening your eyes and moving gently.

To come up without straining your back, remember to roll up slowly, one vertebra at a time, your head coming up last. Stand upright, relaxed, with your hands at your side. This is a good exercise for releasing tension.

Resilience and Recovery–Reflections on 9/11

Quote:  ”In the face of unexpected setbacks and disruptive change, resilient leaders do two very important things: they maintain a clear vision of what they want to achieve and they continually communicate to others how the country, organization or individuals can identify problems and  find their way forward.” Mark W Hardwick, Ph.D. 

Reflection: Going through my stack of unread journals and other stuff I recently came across the Newsweek edition published on September12, 2011. Their series of articles were titled RESILIENCE a powerful framework for looking back and forward sense the events of  9/11 ten years ago. They focused on  overcoming fear, grief and revenge to reflect on how to overcome severe traumatic events like 9/11.  But the most powerful piece was about how we have recovered. Resilient leaders get others interested by engaging their imaginations, generating intrigue in the subject, and asking questions that stimulate new thoughts. They have a knack for sorting through large amounts of information and opposing points of view to settle on a decision. They follow through on commitments, and keep others informed when promises cannot be made. They participate in establishing individual and team goals, and then communicate over and over again how accomplishing those goals will enable the organization to achieve its vision of winning. Most important, they get the right things done without constantly pursuing other options that may or may not align to the objectives. The real impact of tragedy on the scale of 9/11 is to test our commitment to the great American experiment and build a more empathic shared meaning of what Democracy means in our daily interactions  and collective consciousness. 

 More ideas on Trust. See http://the wick.wordpress.com/2010/09/25

Are you feeling negative about life–Learn 2 take control of your negativity and stress

“I’m feeling pretty negative about life and I’m feeling pretty stressed ABOUT…”

Has a friend ever said this to you?  What do you do? Try to reassure or rescue them by saying things will get better or let me help or do you dig for more understanding by asking them to tell you more…

When you have a big events coming… wedding…birth of twins…comforting a dying Father or Mother or Friend… or at work a  presentation or critical proposal due, the pressure you friend feels or you is usually self-imposed by your thinking and anxiety of the events. How do I know? Because stuff that felt high-pressure a few years ago is old hat to me now. Because it used to be hard for me to speak to a class of twenty people, or take the wild run with each up and down of my retirement stocks and now I just go for the ride. Because I now realize these challenges are just part of this wonderful journey so not only do I get used to life’s surprises and curve balls, I embrace and thrive on them rather than being negative. .

Unless you’re caught in a terrible storm or some other outside event most of what we experience and stress about is self-induced by negative self-talk and irrational thinking.

What you do with the stress in life is up to you. If it’s not helping you do great work, STOP AND CHANGE YOUR THINKING OR FIND WAYS TO DISTRACT, overcome or challenge the STRESS BY BEING MORE POSITIVe and Mentally Tough..

Every man’s Birthday Wish—Remain Free and Wild at Heart

Daily Reflection–Every Man’s Birthday Wish

If you have ever loved a place and have left it behind, if you have ever suffered pain of missing special smells of the trees or the pond and nature’s tranquility, if you have ever struggled with understanding and accepting yourself and your restless about life and its meaning, you ought to read Wild to the Heart.

Ever year you have special day’ s to celebrate. Don’t miss them or put them off. Birthday’s, Holiday’s and Anniversary’s is what I am talking about. For example, on your birthday it is a perfect time to take stock of where we have been and where we want to go.  I think for all of us there are good year’s and challenging years. Good years are not difficult to take. It is the challenging years that we need to conjure up endless energy, toughness and perseverance to make it through. When times are difficult I like to reflect on gain strength from nature.  I go to my library and pull out my favorite naturalist and author, Rick Bass.  He has written Winter: Notes from Montana, The Nine Mile Wolves, Deer Pasture and Wild to the Heart.  In many of his books he writes about the beauty and freedom of nature and the struggle for survival by the animals. Nature for me provides the perfect metaphor for my essence and meaning in life. Nature provides nourishment, challenges, restfulness and replenishment. The following excerpt from Wild to the Heart, by Rick Bass, Norton 1987, a collection of essays about a journey of passion, renewal and freedom is perfect message for  all of us on our special day—our Birthday. In world that many times asks us to make false choices Rick Bass provides hope and inspiration about the power of nature and man’s ability to lead a life of purpose. Enjoy your day and always remain–“wild at heart”.

Here is Rick’s touching and uplifting message– “ If it’s wild to your own heart, protect it. Preserve it. Love it. And fight for it, and dedicate yourself to it, whether it’s a mountain range, your wife , your husband, or (heaven forbid) your job. It doesn’t matter if it’s what makes your heart sing, if it’s what makes your days soar like a hawk in the summertime, then focus on it. Because for sure, it’s wild, and if it’s wild, it’ll mean you are free. No matter where and who you are.” 

Constant Overload and stressed? Learn to Recover and Relax

Constantly on information overload. Prescription for change: Use Smart-step process.

“We can do no great things – only small things with great love. Mother Theresa 

By  overload I don’t just mean that you are busy multi-tasking or feel like the 50 things on the ” to do” list will never get done. I mean a general feeling of constant pressure and stress and the inability to relax.  In addition, I mean an overload of input from the outside that gives you a sense of being out of control. The result of this constant pressure and activity is that setting priorities, making choices and problem solving become difficult and your ability to concentrate wains.  If you just let all the outside interferences bombard you it will be hard to think clearly. It’s just too much stimulation. A few more potential downsides to this state are:

1. Some of the input you receive will be negative. The media and your surroundings often put a negative spin on things for various reasons. If you aren´t selective in what input you want in your life then you’ll be dragged into this negativity milieu. This affects how you think, feel and act.- It creates an urge to want to just run away from all of it.

2. It becomes hard to make decisions and take action if your mind is constantly running in and there with many diverse pieces of information or trying to meet all the demands and requests. Personally, I find that if I get too much information it leads to a sort of paralysis. Nothing gets done.. Or you get stuck doing and keeping busy, busy, busy at high-speed with low priority activities.

To be able to focus, think more clearly and take action it´s useful to be more selective in what you let into your mind and to take time to rest or relax the mind.

There is a friend who taught me to overcome overload by practicing mindfulness. Once a day, he finds a quote or a poem that is related to nature, serenity or quietness. After selecting the material to read he finds a peaceful spot to enjoy the poem or quote and in a reflect way explore it a bit and how it is relevant to his life. For me, quotes and poetry can often sink me into a state of greater relaxation and mindfulness if I just empty my mind and let the words float by.

So for today, here is a quote by John Gardner to reflect on—“When we talk about revitalizing of ourselves, organizations or society we tend to put exclusive emphasis on finding new ideas. Bu there is no shortage of new ideas; the problem is to get a hearing for them. And that means breaking through the crusty rigidity and stubborn complacency of the status quo.” 

After this break I guarantee you will feel like you have just spent 20 minuets mediating. Try it let me know what you think.

When you work shut out as much distractions as possible. Shut off the phone, internet and shut the door. It is strange how much you can get done when you aren´t interrupted every minute or have the opportunity to procrastinate by checking your RSS-feeds or favorite websites.

For instance, you don´t have to let in all the negative emotions from your surroundings. If everyone else is procrastinating or are anxiously keeping themselves busy by doing low-priority tasks at warp speed it´s easy to be influenced by that mood and context.

Overcoming Public Speaking Anxiety–Butterflies be gone

Learning to “Release and Relax”

 

How do you overcome nervousness and get those butterflies flying in the same direction?  Learn to refocus your thoughts and practice deep breathing. What causes this angst when getting ready to deliver a speech or presentation? The “fight or flight” response sympathetic nervous system is the culprit. Most of us experience Fight or Flight Response on a daily basis but few of us know how to stop this response and learn how to refocus and recover.

The technique you need to learn is the “relax and release” response of deep breathing. Do you ever feel like you’re not in control of your nerves, fears, or desires—as if you are being “hijacked” by strong emotions or habitual response “hot buttons”? Do old habits of protecting yourself from painful feelings sabotage your presentations, derail interpersonal relationships, and make you feel frustrated, or hold you back from reaching your full performance potential?

Bold new advances in cognitive psychology have determined that our one hundred billion brain cells (or neurons) organize themselves into neural paths that produce our every thought, emotion, word, and action. Based on this research, Neural Path Re-Conditioning and Coaching provides a series of easy-to-understand exercises to help you quite literally change your brain’s reaction to nervousness, fear and frustration that impede high performance behavior.

In this simple process of self-coaching deep breathing process, you’ll learn to:

• Identify and change those neural paths that often control your negative behavior, while strengthening useful or pleasurable ones
• Discover and unleash the power of the “relax-and-release response”
• Build the “mental memory and muscle” needed to take control of your own moods, thoughts, and emotions
• Become more aware of your thoughts and self-talk, with increased mental focus

Stress Relaxation Inventory

HOW WELL CAN YOU RELAX?

1. 	Always         Sometimes          Never
   Are you able to shut out your worries when you go to  bed at night?	3                    2                        1
   Are you able to take a nap during the day and waken refreshed?	3                    2                        1
   Is your clothing well-fitting and comfortable?	3                    2                        1
   Are you able to concentrate on one problem at a time?	3                    2                        1
   Do you plan your day’s activities?	3                    2                        1
   Do you find time to relax and stretch during the day?	3                    2                        1
   Do you take time to relieve held positions required in your work to prevent a feeling of tenseness?	3                    2                        1
   When you feel yourself becoming tense because of sustained positions, do you know how to relax by doing simple movements?	3                    2                        1
   Do you check yourself frequently for habitual tension habits, such as scowling, clenched fists, tight jaws, hunched shoulders, or pursed lips?
   	3                    2                        1
   Do you find it easy to relax so that you sleep easily and deeply?	3                    2                        1
   Do you know how to release tensions through simple movements so that you can sleep well?	3                    2                        1
   Do you play with such interest that you become completely absorbed in what you are doing?	3                    2                        1
   Do you plan your life to have a change of people, scenery, and thoughts?	3                    2                        1
   TOTAL
   Ability to relax:  33-42 High      24-32 Average       14-23 Low

Feeling “Stuck” Eliminate Energy Drainers

“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”

Mahatma Gandhi

Having negative energies in our lives can easily bring us down and encourage further feelings of depression. We have all encountered “energy drainers”. At home because of poor communications, socially because you were mis-understood or at the  workplace interactions that are filled with emotionally damaging exchanges that impact our zest for life. We feel stuck, upset and impotent to handle these recurring situations.

How to Improve Quality of Life and Mental Toughness? Try this Recovery Technique

What to do to  stay in control and avoid the “fight and negative stress” response?  The next time when someone or something has caused you to be upset or angry certainly try counting to “20″ before responding. This is helpful if we can encode this response in our brains or have the ability hold back the alien ready to pop out of your chest. And I have found that in most situations it can work. But in this stress driven world … think in this fast pace and intensive and time driven world we live in it is important to be able to stay centered and relaxed. I am trying out a method that works for me it is called — the “5 Second Smart-step Recovery Rule” for ” mental toughness and stress reduction.  I recommend it highly. Here are the steps:

Count to Five –Toughness Response

Breathing is the foundation of sanity because it is the way we provide our brain and every other vital organ in our body with the oxygen needed to survive. Breathing also eliminates toxins from our systems.

There are many techniques for deep breathing, but one of the simplest and most effectives ones that I learned is  ”Five Second Smart Step Recovery” method:

• Breathe in slowly to a count of five.
• Hold the breath for a count of five.
• Exhale slowly to a count of five.
• Rest for a count of five by taking normal breaths.
• Start over again with number one.

Success in spite of being diagnosed as Mentally Ill

A remarkable story of overcoming barriers of mental illness. Ms. Saks managed to achieve both professional and personal success in spite of being diagnosed as suffering from the brain disorder of schizophrenia. By some people this would be considered a death sentence. How she overcame these barriers provides hope for consumers and families struggling with this chronic and devastating brain disorder is capture in the following video:  and her inspiring new book The Center cannot hold: My journey through madness. In this memoir, she frankly and movingly discusses the disease, and the treatments that helped her to cope and thrive. She is very insightful about stigma and coping with this debilitating and chronic illness. This is a must read for anyone suffering with this disease and family members trying to understand their loved one. She provides a ray of hope for recovery. Thank you Ms. Saks I now have the courage to keep supporting  my son in his recovery efforts.

Challenging Old Mental Maps and Perceptions: Act on objective reality

“Life is full of problems and difficulties, the secret to handling them is to handle problems and not  expect to have no problems in life.”  MWH

An event happens–you get fired or you don’t get the job offer. Your brain goes in to overload and you begin to make interpretations, assumptions or make stuff-up about what just happened. The meanings we pile on to event can be accurate (objective) or false, incomplete and inaccurate. Some might even start to play the game of awfulizing. Awfulizing goes like this. A an event happens, B you start making stuff-up mostly negative and C action and results flow from your negative thinking. i’m worthless, poor provider, never  will find another job, my wife will divorce me, and I will be homeless , and finally life isn’t worth living because it is tough and so unfair. In order to be emotionally healthy you need to stop awfulizing.  The technique which I have found helpful in these situations has three parts:

1.  ”Stop” take a deep belly breath and focus on relaxing for a few seconds (5-10)

2. Confront the stuff you are making up and reset your rational thinking.

3. Choose a response based on reality and your best interests for the interaction or situation. Ask yourself–What is reality and inconvenient about this situation. Don’t create disaster fantasies or awfulize.

Try the exercise below to help you sharpen your thinking and positive responses using the STOP-CONFRONT-CHOOSE PROCESS

Mental Toughness “16 Second Cure” and other ideas for Surviving Stress

Teddy Roosevelt’s Way, “When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all.”

Winning seems so easy and natural for the Nadal’s and Feder’s of the tennis world. And in other sports too. But the real secret seems to be mental preparedness and toughness.  The perception that winning is easy we know is false but it does look like their work is play. Many of us chalk it up to the person is naturally talented and gifted.

In other world’s such as politics and business MT is also an important factor in being successful.

Obama seems to have it –calm and”kool” under pressure yet lacking some toughness in regard to HCR, Oil Spill etc. Especially, if you are a progressive which we now know he is not.  This somewhat vague concept  of MT could be the critical factor for identifying effective leadership in the 21st Century.

So what is mental toughness? It can be defined as the ability to access and maintain focus and determination to complete a course of action despite complexity, difficulties or unknown consequences. Some say it is the will to never give-up or quit. So the question is: Can “mental toughness” (MT) be taught or is innate? Let’s look at the sports world where MT is often used to describe super stars. Many athletes and coaches think, MT is an innate quality or talent that you are born with and they believe can’t be taught or learned because it is a part of your DNA or it isn’t. According to this school of thought mental toughness is usually something you’re born with and is reinforced early in life by your parents and environment. These authorities believe  it’s hard to take a sensitive “mommies boy” and make him tough no matter what you do. This obviously is the nature argument. The nurture position states that people can be shaped and learn from different experiences, modeling and teaching.

Motivation and MT roots
The root of mental toughness lies in motivation. Those who are deemed mentally tough typically exhibit what sports psychologists call “intrinsic achievement motivation.” A study featured in Psychology of Motor Behavior and Sport defines this as the desire to be self-determining. People who are intrinsically motivated are self- starters, willing to push themselves to the brink for the love of their sport or activity. They need little encouragement to give their best effort, and they often do well setting their own goals. For others, who are called “game players” they only begin to jell when the pressure of competition is on. They go through the motions in practice and drive coaches crazy. They only shine in the chance to compare themselves with others. These guys have what’s called “achievement motivation”  and play best under the gun. You hear them say things like give me the ball I want to take the penalty kick or final shot when the BB game is on the line. They do not fear failure failures and  all things being equal between two competitors, whoever is higher in achievement motivation will be the better athlete, hands down.

Other researchers have said that motivation is important but brain chemistry can over ride desire/motivation if  the player experiences anxiety. With too much anxiety detrimental changes in our brain and biochemical reactions take place. Stress research calls this the flight or fight response.  Now we have new brain research evidence reported by Dr. James Loehr, a famous performance psychologist, and Daniel Goleman, known for his work in  Emotional Intelligence, that links negative thoughts and arousal with the stress hormone cortisol.  Cortisol is produced by the adrenal cortex.  Cortisol has been associated with feelings of anxiety, tension, helplessness, and loss of control.  Positive thoughts and pleasant experiences are linked to a positive trigger or rush of adrenaline, and an increase of epinephrine and norepinephrine. The positive jolts make for better performance.

Having an optimistic attitude can help increase the positive effects of epinephrine and norepinephrine.  Optimism, which produces these positive brain chemicals reduce many anxiety symptoms and can provide performers with the positive energy to focus and concentrate on the activity at hand.

By learning to “look on the bright side,” of challenges and seeing stressful situations as opportunities for growth, you increase the likelihood of producing a positive mental and arousal state.  This positive mental state leads to a chain of biochemical events that mobilize the brain and the body to cope more effectively with the situation.  A positive reaction to stress can then lead to what Dr. Loehr, calls the challenge response, which counteracts the negative effects of stress and improves your performance and enjoyment in presenting and speaking to groups. The challenge response helps leaders and high performance jocks to be more calm, relaxed, alert, energetic, inspired, and enthused. Mental Toughness, a phrased coined by internationally renowned peak performance guru Dr. Jim Loehr, has it roots in tennis, where Loehr first came to prominence. Applied to tennis, Mental Toughness training specifically targets physical rituals before and after points to help create focus and calm during a tennis competition. Practicing Mental Toughness techniques prior to your matches will help you handle more stress during your matches.Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/141072-mental-toughness-training-tennis/#ixzz0sktDIss7

Evolution

In his research, Loehr noticed that top champions followed similar behavior patterns between points. For example, as soon as a point ended, whether the player won or lost the point, he would change the racket to his non-dominant hand to release tension in his playing arm. At the same moment, the player would turn away from the net and begin his walk to the baseline. Top players looked only at their strings, the ground or their opponents between points. They did not look into the crowd, at their coach, passing airplanes, ballboys or umpires.

Loehr created a ritual for players to use to improve their mental toughness, starting with the racket switch, turnaround, walk past the baseline to the far end of the court while looking at the racket strings, then returning to the baseline to serve or return serve. Loehr called this pattern the 16-Second Cure.

Expansion

As the concept of Mental Toughness grew in popularity, other sport psychologists began to develop their own variations of the concept. A devotee of Loehr, Dr. Bryce Young, developed his Play, Recover, Prepare system for mental training, which is similar to Loehr’s 16-Second Cure. Like Loehr’s four-step cure, Young’s three-step system requires players to follow a set routine between points. Young also promotes self-confidence, breathing, imagery and pre-serve and pre-return rituals.

Self-Talk

“You idiot!,” “You can’t play tennis!,” and other negative self-talk not only brings you down emotionally, it can improve your opponent’s attitude as she sees that you are not as confident as she thought. Regulating self-talk is a key component of Mental Toughness training for any performance activity. Remaining outwardly and verbally positive is important enough that some coaches recommended complimenting an opponent on a winning shot immediately after they hit it, to take away any notion in them that they have beaten you mentally.

How is your mental game in life?  Try to develop healthy rituals and positive self-talk to handle the pressure at work it’s worth the effort and will help you triumph over burnout.

Mental Toughness- New factor for Leadership

Obama seems to have it –calm and”kool” under pressure and John McCain seem to lack it. (Remember the response by both candidates to the economic melt down) This somewhat vague concept  of MT could be the critical factor for identifying effective leaders in the 21st Century. So what is mental toughness? It can be defined as the ability to access and maintain focus and determination to complete a course of action despite complexity, difficulties or unknown consequences. Some say it is the will to never give-up or quit. So the question is- Can “mental toughness” (MT) be taught or is innate? Let’s look at the sports world where MT is often used to describe super stars. Many athletes and coaches think, MT is an innate quality or talent that you are born with and they believe can’t be taught or learned because it is a part of your DNA or it isn’t. According to this school of thought mental toughness is usually something you’re born with or develop very early in life due to your parents up bringing and environment. These authorities believe  it’s hard to take a sensitive “mommies boy” and make him tough no matter what you do. This obiviously is the nature argument. The nurture position states that people can be shaped and learn from different experiences, modeling and teaching.

Motivation and MT roots
The root of mental toughness lies in motivation. Those who are deemed mentally tough typically exhibit what sports psychologists call “intrinsic achievement motivation.” A study featured in Psychology of Motor Behavior and Sport defines this as the desire to be self-determining. People who are intrinsically motivated are self- starters, willing to push themselves to the brink for the love of their sport or activity. They need little encouragement to give their best effort, and they often do well setting their own goals. For others, who are called “game players” they only begin to jell when the pressure of competition is on. They go through the motions in practice and drive coaches crazy. They only shine in the chance to compare themselves with others. These guys have what’s called “achievement motivation”  and play best under the gun. You hear them say things like give me the ball I want to take the penalty kick or final shot when the BB game is on the line. They do not fear failure failures and  all things being equal between two competitors, whoever is higher in achievement motivation will be the better athlete, hands down.

Other researchers have said that motivation is important but brain chemistry can over ride desire/motivation if  the player experiences anxiety. With too much anxiety detrimental changes in our brain and biochemical reactions take place. Stress research calls this the flight or fight response.  Now we have new brain research evidence reported by Dr. James Loehr, a famous performance psychologist, and Daniel Goleman, known for his work in  Emotional Intelligence, that links negative thoughts and arousal with the stress hormone cortisol.  Cortisol is produced by the adrenal cortex.  Cortisol has been associated with feelings of anxiety, tension, helplessness, and loss of control.  Positive thoughts and pleasant experiences are linked to a positive trigger or rush of adrenaline, and an increase of epinephrine and norepinephrine. The positive jolts make for better performance.

Having an optimistic attitude can help increase the positive effects of epinephrine and norepinephrine.  Optimism, which produces these positive brain chemicals reduce many anxiety symptoms and can provide performers with the positive energy to focus and concentrate on the activity at hand.

By learning to “look on the bright side,” of challenges and seeing stressful situations as opportunities for growth, you increase the likelihood of producing a positive mental and arousal state.  This positive mental state leads to a chain of biochemical events that mobilize the brain and the body to cope more effectively with the situation.  A positive reaction to stress can then lead to what Dr. Loehr, calls the challenge response, which counteracts the negative effects of stress and improves your performance and enjoyment in presenting and speaking to groups. The challenge response helps leaders and high performance jocks to be more calm, relaxed, alert, energetic, inspired, and enthused.