I love deadlines. So, I’m one of those crazy people that can thrive under pressure.
(Brag over.)
I feel like it’s when I do my best work because it forces me to focus and it tends to boost my creativity.
The downside of this, because I know this about myself, I will often procrastinate. (See? I’m not perfect.)
What this means is I use my stress and anxiety as motivation, rather than an obstacle.
Studies show that using your stress and anxiety as a source of energy will decrease your emotional exhaustion when a task is completed.
The Right Amount of Pressure
Thriving under pressure doesn’t mean accepting high levels of stress and take on extreme challenges. Rather, it means you understand what is required and what needs to be done to complete a task or get through a challenging situation.
It’s recognizing that a certain level of pressure can be motivating and help you grow. I think people who thrive under pressure look at and approach challenges differently. Instead of seeing an obstacle, they see an opportunity to strengthen their skills, their resolve, or learn something.
In turn, they end up building resilience to stressful situations.
You need to be exposed to a certain level of pressure to develop your resilience, but too much can have a negative impact. A good way to think about this is like going to the gym. You need to push yourself to improve your fitness, build muscle, or increase your flexibility. But, if you over do it, you can injure yourself and set your fitness levels back.
What Sets People Who Thrive Under Pressure Apart from Others
There are traits that people who thrive under pressure naturally possess. Their brains operate differently not only because of a natural resilience, but also because:
- They prioritize and focus. They know how to focus on what is important and let go of the small stuff to preserve time and resources.
- They can predict obstacles. When chaos or uncertainty breaks out, they are running possible scenarios in the back of their heads.
- They are flexible. They release expectations and plans, and adapt to the situation at hand.
- They aren’t afraid of uncertainty. Instead of focusing on what they don’t know, they start looking for solutions.
- They can manage their emotions. Even in the most intense situations, they stay calm and collected to keep their mind clear.
Even if you don’t naturally possess these traits, you can still learn them.
What You Need to Learn to Thrive Under Pressure
With time, you’ll not only build resilience, but you will learn when pressure exceeds an optimal level and starts to have a negative effect on your performance. Working on your awareness to your stress is a key part of learning how to thrive under pressure.
Work on building these five skills:
- Awareness: You need to know when you feel stressed and what triggers it, as well as, what calms you down. This will help you build an internal “locus of control” that keeps your attitude and emotions in check when challenges arise. (Especially, unexpectedly.)
- Manage Your Response: Keeping a positive mindset in pressured situations can help you think clearer, make better decisions, and provide motivation.
- Be Organized: Taking control of your workload enables you to manage it when pressure start to build and your resources and time need to be diverted.
- Manage Your Emotions: It’s easy for emotions to run high when you’ve got a lot to do, but using emotional intelligence to help you cope in these situations will help you stay chill.
- Ask for Help: When the pressure builds and feels like it’s about to be too much, ask for help and support. This is part of understanding and know how to best use resources available to you.
How to Find Your Sweet Spot
Before you go all in and crumble faster than a cookie in milk, know when to say when.
There is no magic formula to help you find out how much pressure you can handle before you explode.
Sorry.
The two things that help you figure out:
- Knowing what motivates you, rather than burdens you.
- Having an awareness of when you feel too stressed versus too idle.
When you know these two things about yourself, you can look for patterns. Do you do your best work in the morning? How do you feel about last-minute rushes and tight deadlines? When do you feel overwhelmed?
Knowing what works for you will also help you create realistic expectations of yourself and when something isn’t going to work out. This will keep you from setting yourself up to fail.
Even the best at working under pressure know when to say no and when something isn’t a match for their skill set when they factor in time and energy.
