WEBVTT

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Translator: Cristina Mantione

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E: What does it mean to perform under
pressure in the work that you do?

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S: Performing under pressure, whether
it's me or anybody else, is the same.

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You know, I have the same pressure as 
anyone else. There's time, performance,

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there's financial...I mean, there - you 
know - there's deadline

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My preassures are not unique.

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The situation's may be different or, you
know,

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but everybody has the same kinds of 
pressures, but what I found or

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what I find fascinating is the 
interpretation of the stimuli.

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If, if... let me explain: so, I was 
watching the Olympics,

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this last summer Olympics, and I was
amazed at how bad questions were that

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the reporters were to ask to the athletes,
and almost always they asked the same

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question, whether they were about to
compete or after they competed:

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"Were you nervous, right?"

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And to a tee all the athletes went:

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"No!"

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Right! And what I realized, is it's not
that they're not nervous.

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It's the interpretation of what happens in
their bodies. I mean, what happens when

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you're nervous, right? Your heart rate
starts to go, you know, you sort of get

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a little tensed, you get a little sweaty,
right?

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You have expectation of what's coming, and
we interpret that "I'm nervous".

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Now, what's the interpretation of excited?
Your heart rate starts to go, you become -

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you're anticipating what's coming, right?


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You get a little sort of like tense it's
all the same thing.

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It's the same stimuli, except these
athletes, these Olympic quality athletes

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have learned to interpret the stimuli that
the rest of us would say is nervous as

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excited. They're also the same thing:
"No, I'm not nervous. I'm excited, and so

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I've actually practiced it, just to tell
myself, when I start to get nervous, that

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this is excitement! You know?

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And so, when I used to speaking in front
of a large audience and somebody said:

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"How do you feel like?" I said: 
"Little nervous."

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Now, when somebody says: 
"How do you feel like?"

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"Really excited, actually!" And it came 
from just sort of telling myself:

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"No, no, no. This is excitement!" And it
becomes a little bit automatic later on,

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but it's kind of a remarkable thing 
to deal with preassure by interpreting

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what your body's experiencing as
excitement rather than nerves and it's

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really kind of effective. It makes you 
want to rush for it rather than pull back

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and yet it's the same experience.