Want To Stay Cool Under Pressure? 4 Ways You Can Be Mentally Tough

I’m not a natural athlete. This sad fact became evident at a very inconvenient time—my first day of new agent training at the FBI Academy. New agents are tested in physical fitness and required to accumulate certain points in different areas. I landed at the bottom in every category; the pressure to perform was intense because if I didn’t get high enough scores, I’d get kicked out of the Academy.

Everyone experiences stressful events, which trigger a boatload of hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones can prepare us for action but can also make it difficult for our bodies to calm down.

The stress we feel when under pressure triggers a fight-or-flight-or-freeze response in our limbic brain system. The limbic system controls our emotions; its primary job is to keep us safe. As a result, it often responds with panic and interrupts the thinking brain’s ability to process rational thoughts. When this happens, we lose our cool under pressure because our emotions spiral out of control.

Read more about the limbic brain system here.

We’ve all experienced “freak out” moments when slapped with the uncertainty accompanying a crisis. Fear and anxiety raise their ugly heads. So, how do we keep from snapping in these moments? It’s possible to stay cool under pressure if we are mentally tough.

Research indicates that the difference between regular and ultra-successful people is not that the latter group thrives under pressure. It’s because they are better able to mitigate its negative effects.

Most of us must cope with stressful situations in which we feel the pressure but don’t think we have the skills to succeed.

Here are 4 ways you can be mentally tough and stay cool under pressure:

1. Ditch the tough talk

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Too many of the articles and books on mental toughness employ “battle-ready” techniques that promise to show unsuspecting suckers how to take control of their destiny. A swagger in your step might be intimidating from a distance, but it won’t prepare you for the hard battles in life. Battle-ready tactics tell you to hunker down with grunts and brawn when confronted with roadblocks.

Sports coaches and tough-guy movies give vulnerable audiences the impression that mental toughness means plowing through obstacles. That might work in snowdrifts and football, but not in real life.

We’re duped into thinking that if we talk and act tough enough, we can bluster our way through anything. That is not mental toughness; it is hubris mixed with a strong dose of stupidity.

Mental toughness is the right approach, but let’s accurately define it: It is managing your thoughts, words, and behavior in ways that will set you up for success. Bulldozing your way through life only makes you look and act like an idiot.

In reality, what you really need is an open, flexible, and adaptable mind. You also need to be savvy enough to recognize not only your own emotions but those of others.

Change the mindset. Change the behavior. Change the outcome—LaRae Quy

If you are mentally tough, you can accurately identify the emotions you feel, both good and bad. Understanding and managing your emotions is critical to remaining calm and cool under pressure.

How to make it work for you: It takes self-awareness to have a strong mind. Self-awareness means you clearly understand your strengths, weaknesses, emotions, and thoughts. Are you mentally tough? Take this evidence-based, FREE Mental Toughness Assessment.

2. Create a prioritization strategy

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We might take a page from the medical profession by prioritizing what needs to happen when we’re hit with a series of deadlines competing for our attention. In an ER, the staff needs to prioritize patients and treatments daily. When confronted with a series of horrible situations, the doctors and nurses break them into critical and non-critical categories.

Ask yourself, “What do I need to do first?” This is where mental toughness comes in because you must calm your mind before distinguishing between critical and non-critical.

Mentally tough people understand that our brains can only handle so much information. The Reticular Activating System (RAS) is an essential part of the brain that focuses our attention. The RAS filters out critical information that needs more attention from the less urgent information that can be handled later. Without the RAS filter, we would be over-stimulated and distracted by everything in our environment.

We need to keep the tension between the larger goal (to save a life in the ER scenario) and the activity in front of us. So, while the overarching goal is to save a life, the best way to accomplish it is by focusing on what needs to be done right now. This is not the time to multi-task because the situation needs our complete attention to achieve our larger goal. After the operation, our attention can shift to what will happen in the future.

3. Plan for the worst

As an FBI agent, I found that investigations rarely follow a straightforward path with predictable conclusions. Instead, a trail that leads to the truth usually resembles a maze of underground caverns rather than a clear road map with signs.

People who are mentally tough are not derailed when things don’t go as planned because they’ve thought of contingencies. They’re not left flat-footed because they’ve not thought beyond Plan A.

Life rarely unfolds as we plan it. Most of us learn this by second grade, but it still stings when our carefully laid-out plans run into a hard wall. When things fall to crap, our heart rate jumps, and we start to move without thinking. In the process, we make bad decisions. We get more agitated, and fear becomes an angry beast that keeps feeding itself.

Many of us don’t know how to move forward if things don’t go our way. One way to stay cool under pressure is to plan for the worst. This is when you need contingencies so that when the primary plan goes out the door, you can move to the next one with little downtime or thinking.

“What-if” scenarios can be your friend. By letting yourself play out the worst-case outcomes, you can brace yourself for them if they arrive on your doorstep.

The key here is that you’re anticipating the unexpected. It can protect you from a pressure surge by allowing you to prepare for and, thus, be less startled by the unexpected. Instead of panicking, you’ll be able to (better) maintain your composure and continue your task to the best of your ability.

How To Make It Work For You: Always have a Plan B. For example, if you’re in a sensitive or contentious conversation with someone, anticipate their response. Think it through before the discussion. For example, “If she says this, I’ll say that.” This will avoid spitting out an emotional response that only escalates the argument.

4. Work In Sprints

Unsplash image by John Cameron

Physiologist Nathaniel Kleitman has discovered that, on average, we operate in a 90-minute rhythm throughout the day, progressively moving through periods of higher and lower alertness. We rely on stress hormones for energy after working at high intensity for more than 90 minutes.

Called the Basic Rest-Activity Cycle (BRAC), studies have shown that when we’re awake, brainwaves are faster during the first half of the 90-minute cycle, which means we feel alert and focused. During the last 20 minutes of the cycle, brainwaves slow, and the body feels tired.

The result is that the emotional limbic system starts to dominate the thinking prefrontal cortex; we begin to lose our ability to think clearly and move into a physiological state commonly referred to as “fight or flight.”

This research confirms that we require rhythmic pulses of rest and renewal throughout our day. Many of us rely on willpower to bulldoze through lengthy projects or meet deadlines, but taking regular breaks is just what our brain needs.

How To Make It Work For You: Mentally strong people don’t drink jugs of caffeine to stay alert. Instead, they manage their time by working hard for 90 minutes and then taking a 20-minute break. They prioritize their day’s tasks each morning to focus single-mindedly on their most challenging and important project for 60 to 90 minutes before taking a break.

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