make it work for you, not against you.
by bill reeb
your best comes through, especially when you are calling upon fine motor skills, when you are relaxed. too much tension can quickly impact your mental, physical and emotional acuity.
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what i am referring to is finding the right level of tension to support performance at a heightened level. the problem is that there is a fine line between tension that pumps you up and tension that starts to drag you down.
there has been a great deal of research on the relationship between arousal (i am referring to this as tension) and performance. the yerkes-dodson law, cited in 1908, predicted an inverted-u function between the two. simply stated, it said, “if the task is complex, requiring fine motor skill or intellectual acuity, peak performance will occur when arousal is low. if the task is relatively simple, requiring only gross motor skill and limited intellectual acuity, performance is stimulated by higher levels of arousal.” so, with a task like playing golf, which requires fine motor skills, while a little tension might be good, as tension is added, performance will not only go back down, but will eventually tank.
the same tension scenario is true in business situations.
for example, a little tension will likely make your presentation to a potential client about why he or she should select your firm crisper and more compelling. too much tension will cloud your mind and make it difficult to communicate your ideas, which could easily culminate in sending the message to your client that you are incompetent. however, if you are performing a task that requires only gross motor skills, like lifting weights, then performance will continue to peak through a higher level of arousal.
from personal experience and from years training and coaching others, i think this phenomenon is more like an inverted j than a u. why? because as you add tension, your performance will likely drop way below your baseline performance to the point of incompetence.
every time i speak to an audience, whether it is 30 people or 1,000, i am happy when i feel a little anxiety before i go on stage. this little bit of tension keeps me in the present, helps me focus, creates mental clarity and drives me to be prepared. but as the needle rises far above “slight arousal and tension,” my level of execution starts to resemble a deer in the headlights level of performance. as we experience in our martial arts training, tension also depletes your energy. your stamina and endurance shrink exponentially as you hold unnecessary tension in your body. to
- maintain high energy levels,
- heighten your performance and
- improve your stamina,
which are all beneficial to supporting your success, health and happiness, it is important to learn to manage tension.
i remember playing in a golf match my friend set up with one of his acquaintances. i was still in high school at the time. this particular friend was fairly aggressive, so i had a strong feeling he had set up the match to play for money. when i pressed him the morning of the match, he told me that there was a wager on it. he was not surprised when i told him that i didn’t want any part of it, so he said “i will cover the bet if we lose and we will share the pot if we win.” i told him that i was happy to play, but that i didn’t want any part of the money, win or lose. he agreed. so off we went. about five or six holes into the match, i was having fun, enjoying a saturday game of golf and we were already several holes up. i was surprised about how bad these guys were playing, especially because i knew money was on the line.
at the halfway mark, we were well ahead and my partner was very happy. about that time, he came over to me and said something to the order of “i am going to party tonight!” he followed that comment with a status update like, “we are up about $800 right now.” remember that when i was in high school, it was the early ’70s. at that time, i had a band that played in the local dance halls over the weekends, and $800 reflected about 10 nights of work for me. when i heard this, something amazing happened. even though i had nothing to lose or gain, the realization that we were playing for that kind of money was enough to propel me to forget how to swing a golf club. in an instant, i went from making pars and occasional bogies to occasional bogies and regular double bogies. for those non-golfer types reading this, suffice it to say that i went from playing okay to playing badly.
fortunately for my teammate, the guys who were $800 down were far more invested emotionally in protecting their money than i was. with each hole, the pressure for them increased and their performance worsened. in the end, i think my friend took home about $1,500. and no, i didn’t take a dime. but i can tell you that tension instantly impacted my performance. i can also assure you that tension was the difference as i watched my opponents’ golf games slip from marginal to terrible.
the next time you find yourself in a situation when you need to access your fine motor skills or your intellect, remember to try to relax and constantly look for ways to get rid of the tension and anxiety.
when you listen to star athletes talk about their superior performance in a game, they will often comment that at crunch time or game-ending moments, everything slows down for them. this is not surprising because they find a place, often called “the zone,” where they are calm, relaxed and confident, allowing them at that moment enhanced access to their mental and physical capabilities. by maintaining a relaxed state and minimizing my tension in pressure-packed meetings when facilitating or consulting with clients, i can find myself in this same zone where i am able to
- slow down the conversations in my mind,
- consider the conflicts and alternatives, and
- keep the meetings moving in a positive direction.
once you realize how much tension can impact your performance and your ability to achieve your goals, it makes sense that you will want to learn how to vigilantly monitor for this state change. whenever you feel your performance starting to drop because your tension or your arousal level is too high, you should instantly put mind and body into a better place. in other words, take a moment to put yourself into a quick meditative state.
as i have learned from years of training, breathing is the most direct tool to communicate with and manage your body. so, stay with me and try this.
for only two or three minutes, breathe in from your nose and out from your nose and mouth with the tip of your tongue placed gently on the palate just behind your upper front teeth. then, breathe in and let your diaphragm expand and fill completely with air. when you breathe out, compress all of the air from your diaphragm and then repeat this exercise with nothing else on your mind but concentrating on the sound of your breathing. try to make each breath a little deeper with each cycle being a little longer. think about making the transitions between breathing in and out negligible (you are not hearing bursts of forced air either in or out). while you are continuing to breathe, walk through your various body parts mentally, willing them to relax.
in just a couple of minutes, this simple exercise should have an immediate impact on the level of tension in your body while freeing your mind and improving your overall performance. you can do this even while remaining actively engaged in whatever else you are doing.
assess yourself in tension management. circle how you feel you are doing.
on this subject, i:
- need a lot of work
- need a little work
- am okay
- feel good where i am
how is tension negatively affecting your performance?
what are you going to do to minimize tension in those situations?