Perception: how to treat anxiety like lactic acid
World-class Performance Psychologist Jonah Oliver explains how to build capacity, stop fighting emotions and focus on what is important
“It doesn’t really matter the emotion, it is the relationship to the emotion” - Jonah Oliver, a world-class performance psychologist with 20+ years in elite sport shares.
What does that mean - ‘the relationship to the emotion?’ If you want a detailed answer, listen to the pod HERE, otherwise let me give the TLDR version.
Basically, it is not the existence of an emotion (say anticipatory-anxiety) that’s the issue, but how we let it distract us. That distraction is what leads to significant - usually negative - impacts on our performance. It takes away our focus and amplifies errors.
Not to be overly dramatic BUT Jonah’s interview was rather profound. He simply explains why we shouldn’t seek to ‘control’ our emotions, rather we need to build our capacity for holding them. By increasing capacity we can accept that any given emotion will take up room in our mind without compromising other more important mindshare.
Instead of trying to remove or ‘control’ emotions, we can simply continue to execute the task at hand while accepting the presence of said emotion.
Imagine anxiety like a passenger in your car. You’re still going to drive regardless of the passengers behaviour because you have somewhere to go - don’t let them take the wheel. Traditional performance psychology practices might have you try get the passenger out of the car entirely - but that’s even harder. Ever try force someone to get out of the backseat? In that scenario you now have a struggle on your hands, that’s derailed your journey, and you are certainly no closer to the destination.
This immediately changed the way I view nerves, anxiety, or even anger.
When you are heading to the start line of a race, or about to present at work, or maybe even ask someone out on a date - nerves kick in. It is part of the cost of entry.
Consider lactic acid. No athlete thinks they can control or prevent lactic acid from building up in their muscles, why would they? Lactic acid means you’re actually doing something RIGHT. Jonah asks:
‘Do you expect lactic acid?’ yes.
‘Will it kill you?’ no.
‘Will it pass?’ eventually.
‘Is it actually a sign you’re doing something right?’ yes, it means that you’re giving it your all and really pushing your muscles to their maximum output.
So why do we treat something physical like lactic acid differently from something mental like performance anxiety? Jonah works with elite sportspeople, national teams, business leaders & performing art groups alike, to reframe their interpretation of emotions.
Jonah has a plethora of other compelling approaches just like this which have proven extremely effective over his 20+ years as a high-performance psychologist.
He may focus on sports but the learnings you can takeaway from this episode apply to everything!! My past three interviews have been totally different because I have stopped trying to ‘calm down’ and instead focus on the tangible elements of the process. Things like ‘do I have my prep documents? secure audio? room ready? timezone check (SO important)?’ The whole time my nerves are there but I don’t berate myself for feeling them, instead I just appreciate how I have something in life that makes me nervous!
Check out the full episode: Tall Poppy Talk with Jonah Oliver
Alrighty, THANK YOU for reading this Poppy Field piece. I really appreciate the time taken to read/listen/watch. Time is the greatest gift! You guys are awesome! <3
What’s in the pipeline?
SACHI - the powerhouse music duo from Aotearoa NZ are gracing the podcast next week, Nick & Will are wonderful lads doing epic things in LA right now. VERY cool!
Goodbye Giggle
What travels all around the world but stays in one corner? A postage stamp.