Simon Sinek on Training Your Mind to Perform Under Pressure

Translator: Cristina Mantione

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

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

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

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

My preassures are not unique.

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

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

what I find fascinating is the
interpretation of the stimuli.

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

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

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

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

"Were you nervous, right?"

And to a tee all the athletes went:

"No!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

you're anticipating what's coming, right?

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

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

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

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

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

this is excitement! You know?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and yet it's the same experience.