Under pressure

Use pressure to your advantage

When I was in high school, I ace some of the most difficult tests in Algebra and Calculus. Because during that time, I was pressured. The friends I hang-out with were good in math. So when there was an exam that’s scheduled, I would study weeks before because I wanted to excel too.

I was pressured. The outcome was favorable for me and my parents too. (They love to see me excel in math).

I remember reading an article about Tom Brady, one of the best quarterback of the National Football League (NFL), advising a younger and aspiring quarterback to “never be comfortable”.

For the record, I hate Tom Brady for dominating the league, and I respect him too for dominating the league. And we can learn a lot from him, that’s why I’m excited to read a book, maybe an autobiography, when he is done with football.

Your performance declines if you don’t push yourself. We know that, you know that, and I know that.

One time, my kid was waiting for a basketball practice outside the gym. The scenario was that he was still 40 minutes to wait before the practice starts. He has a scheduled long quiz also in math the next day.

So I encouraged him to study. He started studying. After around 15 minutes, he said he mastered the concepts already. I told him “you are getting comfortable, can you look for harder examples to work on.”

The bad part was that he forgot the book in school and he was just relying on memory to tell me the concepts they learned. I gave him examples to work on and he kept on saying, “I knew this already, I knew this and that..”

“Never be comfortable” I said. “Do you have examples that are harder like problem sets in the real world?”

He said no and kept insisting he wanted to go outside and play with his friends. So I said he can go now.

When he got back the test a week later, he missed all the harder problems that I was telling him about. He became so comfortable. I reminded him that you should never be comfortable next time. It’s a lesson he should never waste and learned.

He took my advice by heart that when things becomes easy, he asks me for harder problems.

The flip side with pressure is that too much pressure, is not good for you either.

The other side though is that if we pushed ours self too hard sometimes, our performance decline. Because of this, I never tell my kid or pressure my kid to be in the honor roll or something. I always tell him, give it your best shot, and the rest will follow. (He is in the honor roll by the way).

In my business, I would set a goal that’s beyond my comfort zone, and I follow it up with actions, my process goals. But I will not set a goal that can’t be backed up with your action.

Tom Brady was right, never be comfortable. We always hear the saying “get out of your comfort zone”, but in reality we don’t want to. It’s called “comfort” for a reason. Our mind longs for comfort, and we don’t want to suffer.

But anyway, get out of your comfort zone if you want to improve, but not too much pressure or you will not improve because of anxiety too.