10:15 am. You have three deadlines due tomorrow and you still need to start it. You also need to think about making more money due to your massive amount of student loans. Maybe you should google how to make extra money and apply for one thing. How to get rid 11 am. You have 3 deadlines tomorrow! You read somewhere that highly productive people do things in block-tasking because multitasking is the thing of yesteryear, so you need to do each project in one sitting (Overwhelm starting to creep in). Each project is going to take two hours. Maybe you didn’t read that right better read that article again because you have to be productive!  12pm. (Overwhelm has overcome you. You feel defeated so nothing is going to get done today.) You did this yesterday. you can’t do this again you’re never going to be successful. Has this kind of performance anxiety ever crept in on you like this?
Here is a couple of my personal favorite’s to get rid of performance anxiety:

1 ) Prayer It Really Works

You’d be amazed at how many times I personally have given a particular situation over to God (when I finally let go of the control) and the peace and clarity take over. It does wonders for productivity levels.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7

2 ) Feel The Feeling

I realize it sounds a little out there but it works. Think about where the true feeling is coming from. You may come to find that the feeling is completely irrational. Go to the extreme of saying it out loud or even writing a sentence or two. Take for instance the earlier example.  Because you’re nervous about the project was done in two hours, you’re never going to successful? That’s a bit of a stretch. Do you even know for a fact that the project takes two hours?

3 ) One Step At A Time

Have you ever heard of “the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time”? That’s because it’s true! Yes, you have a major project ahead of you that could be your ‘make it or break it’ moment. But you need to get that out of your head. Break down your project into steps. What do I need to do first? Map out it out step by step.

4 ) Minimize Distractions

You’d be amazed at how much less anxiety you have when you have less to look at or hear. Turn off your phone, get rid of your 10 browser windows you have open that you frequently go back and forth with (come on, you know it’s true) and for goodness sake, clear out your desk! Lastly (but definitely not least), getting in a quiet space. Sometimes, it’s really hard to focus when you have coworkers or boss says those infamous words, “hey you got a minute?”. As we all know, that minute turns into a lot of minutes.

5 ) Visualize Success

Are a lot of your performance anxieties coming from a place of insecurity? Fear of failure? That’s completely understandable. We live in a fast-paced, goal-oriented society. You need you visualize yourself in the place where you want to be. Say for instance you want to have a promotion in a year. Visualize how you would feel in that place. Let yourself feel that excitement and level of contentment. There is an article in Forbes that cautions against this technique due to your brain releasing a relaxation response, thus not getting motivation in order to get there.

What you need to do so this doesn’t happen is envision is the full picture of how you got there. Envision the late nights at the office, going to the corporate outings while getting face time with the decision makers it took in order to make it to that promotion. Use that endorphin you’d get from completing your goal to energize yourself for that journey to get there!

Wrapping Up

All in all, it may seem like a daunting task in order to get where you want to go. But it doesn’t have to be. Just take a few minutes out of your day for reflection. Those few minutes that you take out of your day to center yourself will be your pivotal moment to get where you want to be!