"Working on techniques to manage stress is a bit like trying to win the Indy 500 by putting a governor on the engine of your race car or swapping out a powerful V-12 for a V-4 because it offers a "quieter ride." You wouldn't do that. Not if you were after the checkered flag. Not if you were racing star Jeff Gordon. No superstar is about to give his opponents an edge. Nor should you by trying to relax when the pressure's on." ~ Dr. John Eliot from Overachievement

I love that.

A huge theme of Dr. John Eliot's great book, Overachievement, is that we've got to learn to WELCOME pressure and then flow with it. NOT try to breathe ourselves onto a calm island somewhere and avoid the pressure.

As Eliot says, the pressure offers an opportunity for us to play at our edge and push just beyond it to the next edge. Avoiding the edge and floating off to a meditative island when the pressure's on? Not so good. After awhile, rather than a means to an end, that "relaxed" state becomes the end in and of itself. Which is death to overachievement.

How about THIS brilliance for the next time you're feeling a little nervous?!?

"Butterflies, cotton mouth, and a pounding heart make the finest performers smile—the smile of a person with an ace up their sleeves...They definitely would agree with Tiger Woods, who has often said, "The day I'm not nervous stepping onto the first tee—that's the day I quit." ~ Dr. John Eliot from Overachievement

That's stunning...

To smiling in the face of pressure as we give our highest selves to the world. :)