How To Endure Pressure Like a Champion

Welcome

Your Role May Be Different, But the Pressure to Perform Is the Same

In 2012, my first college roommate swore to me that Steph Curry, who as a rookie missed the majority of his third NBA season due to ankle injuries, was going to be the best deep 3-point shooter in the NBA one day.  I brushed it off, thinking that my roommate had gone crazy with his fandom for his local, third tier NBA team.  Who ever heard of Golden State anyway?

Four years later, I was watching Steph in his first NBA finals.

But if you’re reading this, you’re not Steph Curry.  

If you’re reading this and you are Steph Curry, then hello Steph, *screams into pillow* I admire your work.

You’re not Steph Curry, playing basketball in the NBA. But that doesn’t mean that you don’t perform on his level in other areas of your life.  You may not be on TV in front of millions of viewers, but you do experience the level of pressure that comes with that in other ways.

Mental toughness is your ability to perform difficult tasks while coping with the pressure and high expectations of those around you.  NBA players and other professional athletes are great demonstrators of mental toughness because of the visibility of their performance.  We all see these levels of pressure in our own lives, even if it isn’t broadcasted on national television and across the internet. 

Nailing a sales call that makes up 30% of your yearly income, deciding which applicant will be the best hire, knocking a performance evaluation out of the park.  

These are the kinds of high-risk, high-reward moments that you and your team regularly face.  For you, these moments come with the same pressures to perform that athletes experience.  Failing in your work can result in devastating losses, more severe than many NBA players will face if they miss a shot or bungle a play.

Understanding Mental Toughness is how you can start elevating your performance and coping with the pressure that comes with working on a higher level.  Specifically, understanding the concept of Strategic Excellence Position is how you can start seeing yourself as a performer on a professional-basketball-NBA level and elevate all aspects of your performance like they do.

The Strategic Excellence Position is the role you set for yourself and the degree to which you excel in that role.  It encompasses your beliefs, goals, and aspirations as well as how well you enact them.  It is the excellent work you produce and the shape that it takes in the world.  It is what you accomplish when you push yourself to the absolute limit of your abilities and it is the highest level of achievement that you are striving for every day.

To be a “Steph Curry” in your workplace, create a strong Strategic Excellence Position.  Write down your beliefs, goals, and aspirations, start thinking about them every day before you go to work, and record the behaviors and actionable steps you take to enact those goals.  Don’t wait for a threat or high-risk scenario to start considering your performance, but start looking for ways to elevate your Strategic Excellence Position now.

By doing this, you’ll be prepared when you’re required to perform in high-pressure, high-risk scenarios.  You’ll be confident and clear with your direction, and others will sense that confidence and respond to it.

Griffin Hill offers performance tools that allow you and your teams to record your Strategic Excellence Position and help you track your progress while strengthening it.  In addition, many people qualify for a free consultation with one of our consultants.  Find out if you are one of them.

Get started with Griffin Hill and elevate your performance beyond what you thought was possible.  Be the “Steph Curry” in your office and start experiencing the rewards of high achievement today.  

If you like this then read more about Mental Toughness. It’s FREE!