How Can You Manage Pressure? Here is how NLP can help!


September can often be a busy time as the children go back to school and we start to think about the end of the year and whether we have achieved goals, not to mention the festive time looming. 

For me I have had a mixture of pressure and fun; a trip to Spain to play golf, our golf club champtionships and our tennis club championships.

I have won the ladies singles tennis competition for the last 6 years and every year, it feels like the pressure increases to keep performing. I start to have unhelpful thoughts such as:
😨 Everyone expects me to win
😨 I wonder what people will say if I don’t win
😨 I think of losing and equate it to failure. 

I have to work hard to manage these thought processes!  In particular because they go against a key NLP principle of “There is no failure only feedback”

I could feel the pressure mounting even more as I thought of my main competitors; 2 young ladies of 15 and 20 years old. 

I had started playing tennis before they were born!!!

I knew that their youth, stamina and fitness would be better than mine and so I had to draw on my strengths.

I reflected on what I could do well:

✅ My experience and ability to read the game
✅ My flexibility of shots to mix up the game
✅ My mindset!

The first 2 strengths helped me think of my game plan and I used my mindset and NLP skills to think about the competition in a different way.  I reframed my thoughts!

😁 The reason I play tennis is for enjoyment
😁I know if I have negative thoughts or I am tense I will not play my best
😁If I am having fun and I am relaxed, I will play better.
😁 I cannot win every point or every game and have to recognise that
😁 I can only play my best on the day and the outcome or result will be what it is.


I was delighted to say that I did play well and was successful in winning the trophy again this year. But, what was even more important to me was that I enjoyed the games and finding my way through the challenges that I faced.  You can see from the photo that I was put through my paces!


And throughout, I kept in mind the line of a song called "Ready" by the Irish band Kodaline:

 “Never let the pressure overpower the fun!"


In what area of your life would this idea help you?