Can Performance Anxiety Be a Good Thing?

Anxiety is one of the most common reasons people get therapy.

It doesn't matter what causes anxiety: manifestations of anxiety can range from particular fears to more generalized representations of anxiety disorder.

The feeling of restlessness, unease, and downright dread is all too familiar during days when you've barely made a dent on your to-do list. We all know the intense feeling of worrying about how you can complete all your tasks with the remaining hours you still have before the day ends.

Granted, not everyone who experiences anxiety has a diagnosable anxiety disorder. But all of us experience anxiety in one way or another—and it's perfectly normal to feel those butterflies in certain situations. These may include work-related scenarios such as speaking in public, giving a presentation, interviewing for a job, or asking your boss for a raise.

Anxiety is More Common than You Think

According to the American Psychological Association, anxiety is an emotion characterized by tension, worrisome thoughts, and physical changes brought on by the latter, such as increased blood pressure or headaches, whose symptoms vary depending on the person and the magnitude of their perceived threats.

Stressful situations trigger the body's fight-or-flight response. This evolutionary response provides us with a boost of energy needed to help us take concrete action to survive a potentially dangerous situation, such as encountering a bear in the woods or trying to leave a burning building.

However, not all of us deal with bears for a daily living. And while that may be in itself stressful, most people experiencing anxiety do so in situations that aren't life-threatening.

And it's more common than you think. Nearly 40 million Americans are affected by anxiety—and modern workplace culture is one of its major contributors. Figures from the Anxiety and Depression Society of America (ADAA) report that 56% of individuals who suffer from anxiety deal with it at their workplace.

Stressful situations at work are a far cry from the evolutionary threats man had to deal with. Ironically, that's where most people experience performance anxiety, wherein the body reacts to such situations as though it was a life-and-death matter.

Situations that require you to perform at your very best and worry about your performance create the conditions for performance anxiety. Even the anticipation of a stressful event might be enough to trigger it.

However, performance anxiety often works as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Experiencing the fight-or-flight response can throw off a person's focus and interfere with their performance. Athletes choke, speakers forget their spiel, and performers can fluff up their lines due to such anxiety—and the person might believe that such gaffes were deserved.

This may lead to avoiding similar situations in the future, preventing the individual from succeeding and assuaging their fears of their inadequacy. It can be a vicious, confidence-destroying cycle.

Leveraging Performance Anxiety for Better Performance

Anxiety is more widespread than most people think. Many people believe that trying to calm down is the best way to cope with negative feelings of anxiety, but doing so might just achieve the exact opposite.

However, recent studies have shown that anxiety doesn't always have to negatively impact a nervous individual's performance; instead, they can harness anxiety as a means to achieve better productivity.

Based on a 2017 study published in the Journal of Individual Differences, it was found that individuals that viewed stressful events as challenges to conquer rather than stressful situations to avoid had more energy and motivation that led to a performance boost.

It turns out that individuals performed better when they recognized their anxiety, rather than denying its existence or blocking its thought from their minds. In essence, individuals who were conscious of their emotions and accepted the reality of anxiety were more likely to organize themselves and devote the necessary energy and work to achieve their goals.

It's empowering to know that you have a choice as to how to react to anxiety—all the more so now that you know you have the control to react more constructively than needlessly performing constant mental gymnastics that waste your energy.

Next time you feel anxious about anything, know that you have two choices—how to spend your energy—by suppressing it or embracing it. Using that extra energy from anxiety to prepare and perform at your best is infinitely more productive than spending it worrying about things you can't control.

Anxiety shouldn't keep you from performing at your best for as long as you accept the notion that you can channel your nerves into a scintillating performance. On the other hand, if you choose to worry about anxiety setting your progress back, then you're probably right—you've just created your self-fulfilling prophecy.

Over time, you'll gain the resilience to tolerate stressful situations and anxiety a little better and reframe how you see them as challenges to be conquered rather than threats to slink away from when the chips are down.

Take Action

Learning how to harness anxiety for better performance requires you to learn particular skills. One of the most effective solutions is cognitive-behavioral therapy, which may help you regain control and improve your stress-fighting capabilities.

Avoiding stressful situations altogether might be relieving, but know that by doing so, you're feeding your fear over the long run.

If you're willing to conquer your fears and learn practical strategies to manage them rationally, you’ll gain the confidence you need to believe in and trust yourself. Facing your fears makes it possible to confront and address performance anxiety right at the source and helps you find the confidence to express yourself in the best possible manner.

Other nervous individuals might opt to take medication or natural supplements to help them deal with performance anxiety symptoms—consult your doctor to determine the best course of treatment for your unique situation.

In the end, harnessing the power of your anxiety and reclaiming it is like finding a new source of energy that helps you deal with the stress and anxiety you already encounter while allowing you to clear the hurdles that stand in the way of your goals.

Don't Be Too Hard on Yourself

Cut yourself some slack and know that you're doing your absolute best. Take a load off and be kind to yourself when you feel like you're slipping, and always remember that productivity isn't always equal to performance.

No amount of performance anxiety-reducing techniques will ever be good enough if you aren't willing to stop flogging yourself for how your anxiety impacts your productivity. There's no use in trying to make the butterflies in your stomach disappear completely, so don't make the mistake of wasting precious time and energy trying to do so.

Instead, leverage the energy to take your wins and make steady gains that will eventually lead to genuine, tangible progress and accomplishment. All it takes is one small step to change your mind about how you view anxiety and rise above the pressure.