When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance. – Lee Ann Womack
Perhaps you’ve noticed: things that are very easy for you to do become significantly less easy when the stakes are raised and you become more conscious of what you’d otherwise do on autopilot. Speaking, for example. You do it all day, every day. But get in front of a crowd and, all of a sudden, you can barely breathe—let alone speak—your heart’s beating so fast.
Sian Beilock, a cognitive scientist and the current President of Barnard College, wrote the book on how not to choke in high-pressure situations. Seriously: It’s called Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal about Getting It Right When You Have To (and, more recently, she wrote How the Body Knows Its Mind: The Surprising Power of the Physical Environment to Influence How You Think and Feel). And she knows firsthand the cracks pressure can cause, recounting a particular high school soccer game in which her goalkeeping suffered once she knew college recruiters were in the crowd.
Of course, choking is something nearly everyone will experience at some point—doesn’t matter if you’re taking an exam, giving a toast at a small dinner, or kicking a field goal to win the Super Bowl. So we asked Dr. Beilock for some tips to help you never choke again.
BY THE EDITORS OF GQ
GQ: What are some of the mistakes that people make when preparing for a high pressure environment?
Dr. Sian Beilock: Oftentimes, you think that you know the material in a way that you actually don’t. So sometimes students walk out of a test and say, “I choked,” and it might be that they actually didn’t even know the material. So, making sure that you actually know what you’re going to have to do or perform. Like, [in basketball,] taking a shot while no one is on you is very different than taking a shot while lots of things are going on, or even while there’s fans behind you.
I mean, the percent of free throws that are made, whether it’s in college or in the NBA, given the objective nature of how difficult the shot is, you could argue that one of the things that happens is the pressure of all eyes on you can be debilitating in that situation. [The key is] preparing in a way that allows you to be comfortable with what you’re gonna do when it really matters.
I’ve read where you’ve said “look at the dimples in the ball” if you can’t seem to get your golf swing right.
Yeah, or focus on the outcome: where you want the ball to land. Anything than can prevent you from overthinking. There was a rumor that golfers thought about their pinky toe—or that’s what Jack Nicklaus said. Something that takes your mind off the specifics of what you’re doing, so you can do what you know how to do.
“Remind yourself that when your heart is beating fast and your palms are sweaty, these are physiological responses that are helping shunt resources to your body and brain so you can think and focus on the things you wanna focus on.”
You hear a lot about being mindful and constantly being present these days—that seems to be at odds with the idea of going on autopilot.
I think it depends on what you’re present about, right? You can be present about the overall strategy or overall goal of where you’re going and let trained movements or ideas flow out effortlessly. It doesn’t mean you’re not paying attention at all. You’re just not paying attention to everything coming out of your mouth or every aspect of your swing. And so I don’t actually think they’re at odds. I think it’s about what you focus on.
I was a goalkeeper and so were you, and I feel like people were always saying, “I do not envy you during a penalty kick,” and I actually always felt the opposite. You were never expected to save the penalty kick, and if you did, you were the hero. That was kind of a nice position to be in.
I don’t think the penalty kicks were that stressful at all. Because you’re right. You’re not expected. And that comes back to the other situations, where you let in a goal that people expected you to save. But that comes back to the perception, right? Choking is worse performance than expected, given your skill level, because you perceive it to be a high stakes situation. That’s an important part of this. Our individual perception of it really matters.
But there’s no real way to change that perception, right? Like, if you feel something’s high stakes, is there any way to take the pressure off of yourself?
One is to think about why you should succeed, and times you’ve succeeded in the past. Maybe this isn’t as high stakes as you thought it was.
One thing I’ve heard people say is that if you get nervous before a speech, you can sort of shift that and reframe as, “This is excitement.” But how do you actually do that? It sounds great in theory, but it just seems sort of eye-roll-y in actuality.
Remind yourself that when your heart is beating fast and your palms are sweaty, these are physiological responses that are helping shunt resources to your body and brain so you can think and focus on the things you wanna focus on. So some anxiety is actually good for functioning. There’s research showing that if you remind students of this before they take tests—that these sort of sweaty palms and beating heart are actually important for the physiological resources they need to succeed—they actually do better than if you were to say, “Oh, yep. That looks like you’re nervous. Good luck.” So getting people to change how they’re reframing the physiological reactions can help.
Walk me through how that conversation with yourself might go.
“It’s okay that I’m feeling this, and last time I felt this, I performed really well. This is making sure I’m gonna be alert and focus on the right things.”
“I spend a lot of time talking to the students about how these failures are opportunities. They’re not indicative that you can’t do something—they mean you didn’t do it the right way. And they’re opportunities to go in a new direction.”
What about writing down your anxieties or your worries? Why does that also improve your performance?
It’s essentially like downloading it from mind, [which means] it’s less likely to pop up and make you anxious in the moment. And oftentimes, when you look at what people write, they realize when they’re writing that it’s not as bad as they would have thought, and they start thinking about why they should succeed at the end. So getting it down is a way to download it from the mind, but also reframe the situation. It’s kind of like when you wake up in the middle of the night and you have 20 things to do, and you get it all down on paper and you can go back to sleep.
How much of this is a cultural problem where we just are so scared of failure and losing?
It’s an interesting question, right? I think if we can change it from a fear of failure to thinking differently about how we can succeed, or what this brings us in terms of learning or performing better next time, it’s actually a way to take the pressure off. I spend a lot of time talking to the students about how these failures are opportunities. They’re not indicative that you can’t do something—they mean you didn’t do it the right way. And they’re opportunities to go in a new direction.
When you’re actively choking, and you know you’re flubbing it, is there a way to salvage it while it’s happening—or is it more about preparation?
In the moment, focus on the outcomes—like the three things you want to get across—rather than the details. Anything that can take you out of focusing and unpacking those details when you notice you’re starting to do it. You think about a goal that you want to achieve. “I want to get across that I’m conscientious” or “I work hard” and focus on that, rather than every word coming out of your mouth.
I’m a big fan of actually preparing under the kind of high stakes situations that you’re going to have to perform under. So, if you’re gonna go on a job interview or give a talk, practice in front of others. And, if no one’s willing to listen to you, actually videotape yourself, or do it in front of a mirror. Anything that raises your self-consciousness can be helpful in inoculating you against those situations.
How have nerves and anxiety and high pressure situations changed for you over time and over this research?
I definitely believe in the power of mindset. Our confidence [and] our anxieties really matter. Our motivation matters. It’s not just what you know. And so I think through the research and through my own experiences, I give more weight to that. It’s not just about preparing or learning materials. It’s about preparing in the right way. It’s about being ready to show what I know when it matters. And it changes how I prepare, and also how I feel when I perform.Most Popular
I guess the take home of my research is that your mindset really matters. How you perceive a situation and how you perceive your own ability to succeed can actually change how the brain functions and affect your performance.
Say a little more about how you feel when you perform. How does that help?
I think I’m better at not immediately deciding that I’m falling on my face when something doesn’t [go the way I planned], during a performance, whether I’m giving a talk or an interview. I’m better at sort of recovering in the moment because I realize that a lot of it is in my head.
So some of these tools—going back to focus on the outcome, taking a deep breath, remembering that my heartbeat is not indicative of me falling on my face—these sorts of reminders can be good to get me to the end.
Oftentimes, we spotlight: we often think everyone is thinking about us and how we perform and judging us. But the truth is that everyone’s thinking about themselves. And so the things that you remember and that you are ruminating about are likely not things other people are gonna pick up on because they were thinking about what they were doing. And that’s actually comforting for me.
This interview has been edited and condensed.