Most of us have experienced that sickening moment when you realize
you’ve made a serious mistake. Perhaps it was a typo that threw off a
financial forecast, or maybe you forgot to reserve a venue for an
important meeting that’s scheduled for the following day. The details
are different for everybody, but at some point, we’ve all felt that
rising tide of dread and panic.
Mistakes and pressure are inevitable; the secret to getting past them is to stay calm.
New research from the Harvard Business School shows that most of us
go about staying calm the wrong way. People who welcome the challenge of
a crisis—so much so that overcoming the challenge excites them—perform
far better than those who try to force themselves to be calm.
Staying composed, focused, and effective under pressure are all about
your mentality. People who successfully manage crises are able to
channel their emotions into producing the behavior that they want.
In other words, they turn their anxiety into energy and excitement.
This can’t happen if you don’t engage your logic.
Yes, making a big mistake is embarrassing. You might get yelled at by
your boss, and the mistake might even show up on your next performance
appraisal, but, in all likelihood, it’s not going to result in your
getting fired, losing your house, living out of your car, or in any of
the other catastrophic thoughts that fuel anxiety and keep you from
getting focused.
If you struggle with putting things into perspective, just ask
yourself two simple questions: What’s the worst thing that could happen
as a result of this? Will this matter in five years? Your answers should
put a stop to cataclysmic thinking. You’ll probably realize that you’re
panicking due to the anticipation of public embarrassment more than
anything else. Once you get over that, you can build confidence by
picking up the pieces and making things better.
