Nerves Na Fuel: Where You Go Point The Power Before You Start

There dey one moment, most times na like one hour before, when your body go start dey prepare without asking you first. Your heart go pick up. Your hands go warm up. Something go tight and bright for your chest. Most advice dey treat am like enemy, one symptom wey you must calm down before people fit see you.

But if you look wetin dey really happen, e go read differently. Your body don correctly know say something wey you care about dey about to start, and e dey release power: more fuel for your blood, heart wey dey pump fast, eyes wey open wide, and muscles wey ready quick quick. Na the same package athlete dey get for starting line. E no be say something spoil. Na delivery.

The only real question na where you go point am go. Power wey get job na fuel. Power wey you spend the next one hour dey argue with go turn to noise, and the arguing go chop the attention wey you dey save for the work.

Nerves before big moment, na bad sign?

Most times na the opposite. Power wey rush come before something wey you want na your body dey give resources to task wey e don judge say e important, and the physical signs, fast heart, quick breath, warm hands, legs wey no wan rest, dey almost be the same signs as excitement.

Musicians don dey argue this one for public for years, and research don move forward. One recent review of performance anxiety for musicians conclude say the same arousal fit help you or fit spoil work, e depend on how you take assess and manage am, and to just treat am like condition wey you must reduce dey miss most of wetin dey available. The interesting work no longer be about reducing the volume. Na about wetin the player go do with the volume.

The practical version simple well well. If you no feel anything at all before something wey matter, make you notice am, because e most times mean say you don stop to care or you never understand wetin dey at stake. To feel the power na proof say you dey the right place, you dey correctly awake, dey face something wey you wanted.

Wetin e really mean to call the power readiness?

E mean say you go tell yourself the true thing about wetin your body dey do, out loud or for paper, instead of the lie. "My heart dey beat because I dey about to do something hard, and na my body dey prepare me" na correct. "Something wrong with me" no correct, and e go start second problem on top the first one.

This na one of the moves wey research don document well for this field. For one controlled study, people wey dem tell make dem think about their stress arousal as something wey dey work well and dey help dem, show heart and blood responses wey better well under pressure, including heart wey dey pump more effective and blood vessels wey no too tight, plus less attention wey dey pull go negative information. Their body no calm down. Their body work better.

Make you honest about how big the effect be, because na that honesty go make am useful. One meta-analysis wey combine forty four effect sizes find out say to reappraise your arousal dey produce small but real improvement for task performance overall, and bigger one for public performance tasks specifically. The authors talk am straight say this no be silver bullet. Na cheap, fast intervention wey dey move the needle, wey na exactly wetin you need for the hour before something, when nothing expensive dey available anyway.

So talk the correct sentence. "I dey ready" better pass "I dey fine," because your body already know say you no dey fine, and e no go gree with argument. But e go accept job.

Wetin job I go give the power?

One job, wey you don choose before, from three: volume, eyes, or pace. Pick the one wey dey fail first when pressure dey and point the extra energy straight to am.

Volume na for people wey dey quiet quick when stakes rise up. The job na to talk about ten percent louder pass wetin feel natural, and hold am through the first minute. The extra energy go enter your voice projection instead of speed, and room wey fit hear you well go relax, and that one go change wetin come back to you.

Eyes na for people wey dey go inside themself. The job na to continue to look outward, dey look real faces, dey move deliberately from one face go another, instead of your notes, the floor, or empty space. E go burn the power for physical task, and e go keep you in contact with the room.

Pace na for people wey dey rush. The job na to land the last word of each sentence well, and let real gap follow am. Na the hardest one of the three, and na the one wey dey change most how you sound like say you sabi wetin you dey talk.

Pick yours now, while you fit still think, because when the time reach you no go choose again, you go just read your body. Write the word for somewhere wey you go see am for the last minute. One word. No be strategy, na just word.

Why training dey make heart wey dey pound easy to read?

Because person wey dey train dey meet that same set of feelings on purpose, every week, for context wey e clear say na good news. When the same feeling come before pitch, e go come as something wey you sabi already, instead of like verdict.

Physiology dey under this one, no be only say you sabi am. One review of cardiovascular reactivity and physical activity report say people wey dey do aerobic training dey show lower sympathetic response to sudden psychological stress, and dem dey recover fast afterward, and say resistance training too dey reduce the cardiovascular response. The same review dey careful to say people still dey argue how big the effect be, so make you take the physiology as likely bonus, and the familiarity as the part wey you fit count on.

This na the founder own logic, and na why training dey sit inside this category instead of dey somewhere for wellness aisle. E handle the pressure wey come with building career partly by training through am, and that one dey make body na infrastructure for ambition, no be competing hobby. Hard set na composure wey you practice under load. You go choose weight wey go make your heart pound and your breathing scatter, you go stay technically clean while e dey happen, then you rack am and breathe. Na the same skill wey you need by ten for morning, dey face panel, wey you don already rehearse for where the stakes low.

You no need to be athlete before you go collect the benefit. Wetin you need na regular appointment with heart rate wey raise, wey you yourself choose on purpose.

Wetin if the power too much for real?

Move am before you begin talk to am. Shake your hands and legs hard for five seconds, roll your shoulders, then breathe out longer pass how you breathe in, do am twice. Activation wey no get where e go dey turn to shaking and voice wey thin, and the fastest way to spend am na physically.

Do that one away from the room, no be inside am. The point na to arrive with the excess don burn off, and the useful part still dey run, wey be different target from to arrive flat with nothing. Then give am the job wey you pick, and start.

One honest limit. If the power no be just power but na something wey dey come constantly, even on days wey nothing dey at stake, and e dey chop your sleep, your appetite, or your willingness to say yes to things wey you want, that one na different situation from wetin this article dey talk about, and e good make you talk to doctor instead of you manage am alone. To want plenty things suppose feel like to want plenty things. E no suppose feel like alarm wey never switch off.

The power dey your side

The people wey look like say nothing dey bother dem before big moments, na almost never people wey no dey feel anything. Na people wey stop to read the feeling as warning and start to read am as supply, then dem decide before time where dem go spend am.

That new way of thinking worth pass any single technique for twenty years, because e dey remove whole category of self-doubt from the hour before every important thing wey you go ever do. You go stop to lose that hour to fight with your own body, and you go get chance to spend am for the work instead.

Call am readiness. Give am one job. Then go use am.

Where This Info Come From

• National Library of Medicine, How Effective Stress Arousal Reappraisal and "Stress Dey Helep You" Mindset Interventions Be for Task Performance Outcomes: One Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
• National Library of Medicine, Mind Over Matter: Reappraising Arousal Dey Improve Heart and Brain Responses to Stress
• National Library of Medicine, Cardiovascular Reactivity, Stress, and Physical Activity
• National Library of Medicine, One Review of Music Performance Anxiety Through the Lens of Stress Models