Speaker 1: 0:06

Greetings and welcome back. Welcome back to the sweet spot. You have done it. You have made it to win it all Wednesday, here on the sweet spot. This is hump day. It's the middle of the week. This is the time when you've got to grind and you've got to show what you're made of. So on win it all wednesday. We are always looking for the champion's response.

Speaker 1: 0:33

So all week long, here on the sweet spot, we've been dealing with breaking up the stress cycle, handling anxiety and stress and using techniques and understanding how our brain works so that we can be a peak performer no matter what we're facing. Do you like that? I know I do so. We've been talking about managing stress and today I want to focus on one simple truth how you handle pressure directly determines your ability to win. That's the truth. How you handle pressure literally determines your ability and your chances of winning.

Speaker 1: 1:26

I've noticed something fascinating in my work with top performers the difference between good and great is not talent, it's not skill. It's actually how they use stress as a fuel rather than letting it become a barrier. That's what the champions do. You see, when the pressure hits, most people experience what neuroscientists call attentional narrowing. Attentional narrowing your brain literally restricts what you can perceive when you're under stress. That's why people who are under pressure make mistakes. Even the skilled people miss opportunities or make basic mistakes.

Speaker 1: 2:22

When, under a lot of pressure, you know what happens, their vision, both literally and figuratively, become somewhat restricted and tunnel-like. It's a natural kind of a stress response. Think about it Back in the days when our ancestors were in a fear response or a fight response, fight or flight response, of course you had to tunnel your vision because you had to see that tiger coming for you, you had to know where that lion was going to come. You had to know where you were stepping before. You didn't want that snake or that reptile or whatever to get to you. So in a fear response, your vision tunnels right, so that can have you miss things because you want to focus on what the threat is. The only thing is sometimes there's no real threat or that you're just blowing up the threat when it really isn't there, but your body is responding as if it were there and that's what messes up athletes, performers, businessmen, studentsmen, students, you name it. But you know what? Champions develop a different response to that kind of pressure. They have trained their brains to use the same stress energy to heighten their awareness instead of being spazzed out by it. And this is not magic, it's an actual learnable skill. And you know what? I keep saying this to you guys? Ancient wisdom, man. It always gives you insights. Did you know? In proverbs 4, 25, this vision thing came up. I stumbled across it. It said let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you. This ancient advice, my friends, perfectly describes the focused yet open awareness that defines peak performance. So here's your winning action on Winner Law Wednesday.

Speaker 1: 4:36

In your next challenging or pressure situation, I want you to practice something we call pressure shifting. When you feel the stress building, I want you to remember what we talked about on Making Moves Monday Take that one deep breath and then exhale longer than you've inhaled. Remember that's the pattern interrupt breath. And I want you to then consciously expand your awareness, as you've done this pattern interrupt Okay. And I want you to notice three things in your environment that you hadn't paid attention to before. Do you know? This simple practice interrupts the narrowing effect, that attentional narrowing that the amygdala is doing. That, literally will help you be more aware, just noticing what's in the environment. After you've done the breath. I've worked. I've worked with a lot of players and when they practice this, they tell me that when they are in that kind of zone, they see more options after they have done this. So again, it's very simple when you're under stress, anticipate that your vision is going to be tunneled, you're going to have a narrow field and that everything is going to feel condensed. That's when you do the pattern interrupt breath. That's when you expand your awareness. That's when you look around and you see three things you haven't seen before and teach yourself that you can have a broader response in your environment. Okay, now that's everything you need for Win it All Wednesday. That's the winning mindset.

Speaker 1: 6:34

My friend, this is Dr Derek Sweet. Thank you so much for listening to the Sweet Spot on Win it All Wednesday. I hope you're loving this series on how you break through these stress and anxiety cycles and understand how your brain is your greatest weapon in the fight against stress and anxiety, because it doesn't have to eliminate it, it can use it. I'll see you tomorrow. You know what tomorrow is. Tomorrow is Thursday, but it's not just any Thursday. It's Trust Yourself Thursday, and we're building. We're building on everything we've learned so far. See you tomorrow. For those of you who'd like to catch up with me, please don't hesitate to reach out to me on X, on Instagram, on LinkedIn or YouTube. Take care.