The College Matters team recently attended the virtual conference for the Independent Educational Consultants Association. The conference had dozens of interesting topics, and one that particularly stuck out to us was a lecture from performance coach Dr. Ben Bernstein on how students can curb their anxiety to perform their best. We often listen to students say they are particularly anxious for important exams, games, or performances. While Bernstein says some anxiousness can be beneficial for people to perform their best, being overanxious can have a significant impact on performance even when a person is totally capable of doing well.

According to Bernstein, you should think of your performance as a three-legged stool. He calls these legs the Pillars for Performance. When one leg is unstable, the whole stool becomes unstable. When all three legs are working, the stool (your performance) becomes very sturdy. The first pillar is being Calm. Have you ever noticed when you’re stressed that you get shortness of breath or even forget to keep breathing? This is your body going into fight, flight, or freeze mode. Bernstein says consistent and deliberate breathing during a performance is one of the easiest ways students can stay calm. Students should also stay grounded. Have your feet connected to the floor and let gravity push you down. We tend to tense up our bodies and our shoulders when we’re stressed instead of relaxing and staying grounded. The third way to stay calm is to do what Bernstein calls sensing. Let your eyes rest for a few seconds. Engage your other senses. You should always be using at least two of your senses so that you can tune out of your head and tune into where you are.

His second pillar is Confidence. To be confident, you first need to confide in yourself. Be honest with yourself—what is it that you’re truly feeling negative about in relation to this performance? Once your problem is out in the open, it’s time to squash your doubt. Reflect and state a true positive success that you’ve had in this area. For example, if you’re taking the SAT and feeling anxious about a particular math section, reflect on a time where you worked on these exact same problems and were successful. If you did it then, you can do it now. Now that you know you can do it, envision in your mind the small steps you’ll need to take to go from a negative state to a positive state. Envision yourself being successful and that will breed confidence.

Bernstein’s third pillar is Focus. To focus, you should have a goal or target. This goal should be yours and no one else’s. Why are you doing what you’re doing right now? What are potential distractions on the way to this goal? Envision yourself trying to reach your goal with those distractions. Ask yourself, will those distractions help you reach your goal? The answer is always no. Then stop the distractions right then and there and start listening to the voice inside you that will tell you exactly what you need to do to get on track. See yourself listening to those directions. Push yourself to take those directions that you know are good for you.

So there you have it. The three Pillars for Performance are Calm, Confidence, and Focus. If you’ve done the proper practice and preparation leading up to your performance, you can perform up to your potential. This means not only doing the practice problems/exercises/run-throughs but also practicing these three pillars again and again so it becomes natural in crunch time. These strategies can certainly help in many areas outside of testing and games to help us feel better. Remember it’s good to be a little anxious. It means you care about what you’re doing. When it gets to be too much, make sure you’re aware of that and use Bernstein’s tools to get on the right track.