Reframing flips you from low to high performance.

Total Support

• Alison Wood Brooks of Harvard Business School points out the following:
  • Although an overwhelming majority of individuals are convinced that calming down is the best method to deal with pre-performance anxiety, studies involving public speaking, math performance, and karaoke singing propose the alternative strategy of reappraising anxiety as excitement.
  • Compared to those attempting ‘calm down’, individuals who reframe their arousal of anxiety as excitement actually perform much better.
  • This reframing which involves a reappraisal of anxiety can be done employing the following strategies:
    • Using self-talk (ex- simply saying “I am excited” etc)
    • Utilizing simple messages (ex- “get excited”)
  • Additionally, such reappraisals would do the following:
    • Engender the feeling of excitement
    • Reframe threats as opportunities
    • Result in subsequent enhanced performance
  • The findings of the studies imply the centrality of arousal congruency during the reframing process.

Contributors

• Ayesh Perera
• Ramzi Bishtawi

https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xge-a0035325.pdf