116 FREE SAMPLE OF^ SUCCESS UNDER STRESSpresident. But you know how to use the “Panic Reset” button, an acu-
pressure point that reduces anxiety within seconds (more on this in
Chapter 7).
In the brief time remaining, your concentration is steady. Each
slide you complete gives you a sense of satisfaction and momentum.
You put together a solid presentation—pleased to have a say in your
team’s future and confident that you’ll do a good enough job in the
morning. When your assistant pops in to hand you the report, you
notice the mistakes. Instead of snapping, you think about the best
strategy to influence him to give you the right work. You refer to the
recent conversation in which he agreed to take responsibility for his
mistakes and fix them, so your conversation is more of a brief touch
base to get him on track (Chapter 11).
You arrive at your daughter’s play on time, and you beam with
pride throughout her performance. After you fall asleep that night, you
wake up once but know how to get back to sleep within three minutes
(Chapter 4). You arrive at work rested and take a few minutes to re-
view your slides. The presentation goes smoothly and, when there is
opportunity to add additional value to the discussion, you speak up
without a script (Chapter 6). The president is a woman of few words
but you don’t necessarily need her explicit praise—you could read her
body language and also know inside of you that your presentation was
well received. You are on a small high for the rest of the day.
In this scenario, you created a positive spiral—a virtuous cycle.
You handled it well from the beginning by preventing your stress re-
sponse from spiraling out of control. You had constructive and confi-
dent thoughts. You were motivated by the last-minute circumstances.
In fact, the heightened pressure brought out your best qualities. You
achieved a better result, all from small shifts you made in your physi-
ology, your perspective and your approach to the problem. This sce-
nario characterizes Success Under Stress (see Figure 1.2).
Many of us are locked into Survival Under Stress but don’t even
realize it! Lack of sleep, muscle tension, and impaired concentra-M
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