HOW TO PERFOM BETTER UNDER PRESSURE

 

 
“A man who stands for everything, stands for nothing” That is a phrase used to describe a man who, with alluring pressures can be swayed into every and anything. Human beings have a tipping point. A point that if reached and crossed, could cause us to be pushed into things we did not plan for. A point comes where you hear people say things like “I can’t take this anymore” “I am stressed out” “I can’t continue like this” “I quit” etc. They feel an internal or external pressure so much that they either need a quick distraction or a temporal means of relief. In this particular piece, we will be discussing;
  • How to handle situations like this,
  • How to perform better under pressure,
  • And a little story why “pressure” is a no small matter.
 
Before talking about how to handle pressure, what is pressure? Pressure can be seen as any physical or emotional force directed at something to make it change course or direction. See it this way - you have a map to a one million, and the one million has a map to two million and two to four and so forth, but on your way there (to the one million) you meet different signs on the road pointing to different directions contradicting what you have in your map, and at every turn the signs becomes more convincing, making it harder for you to stick with your map and enticing you to follow the signs by the corners. You could force your way through, DEFYING the PRESSURE, or you could SUCCUMB to the well designed street signs leading to any place but the one million.
 

How To Handle Pressure?

                                        



 
First, pressure is not something that can be averted totally. One cannot include “I will not be pressured this year” in his or her new year resolutions because it will come, and one of the ways we can tell we are under a subtle pressure is when we start feeling stressed. While pressure cannot be averted totally, it can be managed properly. Instead of letting it affect our reaction, we can actually train ourselves into performing well under pressure.
We began with a quote showing that any man that is liberal with his will, is weak. One cannot afford to spread the capacity of his will power so thin into believing everything and anything he or she comes across. There must be a certain standard for any man, woman, nation, that seeks to thrive in this world that is hell bent on turning everything upside down.
 

How To Perform Better Under Pressure

                                          

 
First, by seeing pressure for what exactly it is, a distraction. A distraction that cannot be tackled easily but nonetheless, a distraction. And not recognizing that simple fact can make you tackle a disease with a wrong medicine. Knowing that it is a distraction is not enough to make you not engage it you’d say, and that is true. That is why we started with the quote we started with. It is unhealthy to just exist, we must find strong reasons and purpose for existence. Though we lack enough strength in isolation, we can become strong by attaching ourselves to strength. What is strength in this context? Goodness, commitment to truth no matter how hard, honesty - both to our self, justice etc. Having gotten your principles, you should develop the mental strength for labeling every other thing not in line as distraction. Easier written than done, but can be done. One step at a time, it is true that when we spend time thinking and working on our strengths, we tend to develop them even more.
List of 4 things that can develop our mental strength;
  1. Reading - All readers might not be leaders, but all good and vast readers are strong in their minds.
  2.  Exercise - By making us healthier improves our confidence and trust in our self and decisions.
  3. Prayer - God’s place in our lives can never be over emphasized.
  4. Meditation - Not the type you see on TVs, rather a deep and long thought given to any aspect of your life in a quiet place, repeatedly.

                                           

                                         
Second, when under pressure that is instantaneous, studies has shown that an exercise as simple as taking deep breathes at 3secs interval helps a lot, i.e. breathe in for 3secs, hold for 3secs then exhale all the air. There is a science to it and I will explain. When you breathe into your nose, you increase the nitric oxide in your blood stream; the more air, the more nitric oxide. This increases the blood flow in your system and in turn decreases your blood pressure.
N/B: This method can be great when you are dealing with pressures surrounding; giving a talk, taking a test, approaching someone, pitching an idea in front of investors or just to help you get hold of the moment and deliver a well thought response. It does not help with the pressure that comes with bills, peers, etc.
 
                                       


One thing you need to know about pressure is this - THE MORE YOU ENTERTAIN IT, THE LESSER CHANCE YOU GET TO WIN OVER IT. Whether it is an unwanted reoccurring discussion with someone or anything. The more you engage in the discussion, the more likely you are to give into something because we all have a “tipping point.” There is only so much one’s mind can bear. Once it starts feeling stressed, it starts convincing you to give in so as to return to its comfort zone. With that being said, consider the story below from the king’s perspective.
 

The king & The Widow

                                    

 
There was a certain prosperous kingdom and in it dwells a notorious king. The king pays no respect to either God or man - so there is no basis this man can be pressured to do something at all. You can’t use godly things because he does not have the fear of God, nor can you use earthly things because he sees himself above all men. So he can’t be pressured right? Now there was a widow in the same kingdom who lost her husband and was about to be taken advantage of by her husbands kinsmen. They wanted all that belonged to the husband and demanded her compliance.
 
The widow, helpless and confused decided to turn to this unjust king for help. She finds her way to the palace after many days on foot, pleads for an appearance before the king and was granted after being denied 3 times.
“Come to my aid oh king” she said “My husband’s kinsmen wants to take all my possessions.”
The king as arrogant and straight forward as ever said “No” and ordered his guards to throw her out.
But unlike other cases that he has handled in a similar way, this widow was not going away. She kept on coming back with the same request - “Come to my aid oh king, my enemies have risen against me” day after day, month after month and at a point, the angry king has had enough, this was what he said.
“Though I am a king who does not fear God - so no reason to be just. Nor do I fear man - so no reason to sympathize with the widow. I will listen to this woman otherwise, by her CONTINUAL appearance, I loose my mind.” Pressure no matter how little, when applied continually can cause a great effect. The king listened to her plea and passed judgment in her favor. THE END.
 

Conclusion

       

Considering the story from the kings side, the only reason why he gave a judgement in her favor is because the woman was stressing him - stress being a sign that we are under a subtle pressure. This can give us a little insight into why we should avoid negative pressures, because us knowing that it is bad is not enough for us not to do them, if it keeps surfacing time and time again, and anytime it does you give it a little bit of your attention, a time will come you will give more than your attention, which can cause you to not reach your intended destination. It is important you start now by crosschecking anything that mounts a negative pressure on you and dismiss yourself from it totally, and by developing your mind into knowing what is a goal and what is a distraction.

Comments

  1. Very very necessary...this blog.
    A lot of people are frustrated and getting aggressive cause they allow pressure to get the best of them most times.

    Thank you for the reminder to breathe

    ReplyDelete

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