M·06
Mind & Body
Say “I'm Excited”, Not “Calm Down”
Reappraising anxiety as excitement improves performance. Trying to calm down does not — it is a much longer distance to travel.
- Evidence
- solid
- Topic
- Mind
- Things to do
- 3
- Read
- 1 min
solidHow strong is the evidence?
Good evidence behind it, but fewer people have checked it independently.
- Alison Wood Brooks, J. Experimental Psychology: General, 2014 — singing, speaking and maths tasks
Why it works
Anxiety and excitement are the same high-arousal state with different valence. Reinterpreting is easy; downshifting arousal under pressure is nearly impossible.
What to do about it
- Say it out loud: “I am excited.” Out loud beat thinking it in the study.
- Use before speaking, pitching, performing or a hard call.
- Pair it with an opportunity frame: what is there to gain here, rather than what is there to lose.
Where people go wrong
Telling an anxious other person to relax. Tell them it's excitement, or ask them what they're looking forward to.
Read next
- Stress Is Enhancing, If You Believe It IsBelieving that stress improves performance changes the physiological response and the outcome.solid
- Specific and Hard Beats Do Your BestA specific, difficult goal outperforms a vague one or an easy one in nearly every task ever tested.proven
- Exercise Is the Strongest Single InterventionNothing else improves mood, attention, memory and long-term cognition on as much evidence as regular aerobic exercise.proven
- Sleep Sets the Emotional BaselineOne night of deprivation raises amygdala reactivity to negative images by about 60% and weakens the prefrontal control over it.proven