6 Science-Backed Strategies to Avoid Choking Under Pressure
Failing spectacularly in a high-stakes situation is a near-universal experience. Fortunately, there’s plenty of research on how to keep a cool head.
Even now, 10 years later, I still remember the moment with excruciating clarity: During the fourth and final round of a high school regional speech competition, after a full day of flawless performances, I went up to the front of the auditorium for my last speech and froze.
In a way, my entire senior had been leading up to that point. For six months, I had painstakingly prepared and rehearsed that piece — a prose reading — in the hopes that I would qualify for the state finals. I had placed in the top three in my event at every competition that season; if I did the same at regionals, I had my ticket to the next round.
Needless to say, I blew it. Although I had fully committed the piece to memory at that point, I couldn’t, for the life of me, recall a single word. Like an amateur, I kept stuttering, stumbling, and looking down at my book. It was a brutal end to an otherwise stellar season.
As humiliating as the experience was, I took some small amount of comfort (and still do) in knowing that some version of this happens to…
