Feeling Anxious? These 3 Words Can Improve Your Performance Instantly

If you are about to go into a situation where you need to perform at your best, and you're already feeling a high level of "arousal", repeating three simple words to yourself could help you perform significantly better.

Does that sound too much like magic? Or marketing hype?

Don't take my word for it. I'm just sharing what I learned from Associate Professor Alison Wood Brooks from Harvard Business School. You can read her full paper on the topic here.

Professor Brooks first had the idea that just 3 words could make a huge difference when she was watching people about to go onstage to perform on "American Idol". Brooks noticed that often those who expressed excitement right before they went onstage performed better than those who said they were nervous.

To prove her hypothesis, Professor Brooks conducted a series of rigorous experiments that placed participants in a range of anxiety-producing situations, including singing in front of a stranger, public speaking, and completing a challenging maths test.

In the first experiment, 97 people were asked to sing the first verse of the song "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey in front of a stranger, using the game Karaoke Revolution: Glee on Nintendo Wii. One group of participants were told to say "I am excited" and try to believe it, immediately before they performed, while another group were told to say "I am nervous" and try to believe it.

Participants who said "I am excited" scored a mean of 80.5% singing accuracy (measured across volume, pitch, and note duration), while participants who said "I am nervous" only scored a mean of 53%!

These results were achieved simply on the basis of the participants saying the words out loud: it didn't matter whether they honestly believed they were excited. The success of the experiment is believed to be based on the fact that both anxiety and excitement have very similar physiological symptoms - high heart rate, increased sweat production, and higher levels of cortisol.

But this finding isn't just relevant for singers.

Professor Brooks conducted similar experiments where she found that participants who were told to tell themselves "I am excited" or "I am calm" before giving a public speech or completing a challenging maths test performed significantly better in the "I am excited" condition.

The results of the test demonstrated that saying "I am calm" before a performance isn't sufficient to reduce arousal/anxiety. Reframing high levels of arousal as excitement rather than anxiety is a much more effective strategy.

So, next time you or someone you lead is in a potentially stressful situation where you need to perform at your best, remember that what you say to yourself matters! Don't try to calm down or tell yourself you are anxious - instead, tell yourself you are excited and see what a difference it makes.