Pressure is a privilege!

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'Pressure is a privilege, it only comes to those who earn it'

Billie Jean King

Whether or not you’re into sport, I highly recommend watching The Playbook – A Coaches Rules for Life on Netflix.

In this documentary, successful sports coaches share powerful lessons that helped them, and their teams achieve great things. It contains many valuable lessons we can apply to our own lives, lessons I use to help my clients transform their lives.

In the first episode, Doc Rivers – the legendary MBA basketball coach, explains that ‘Pressure is a privilege’.

We tend not to like being under pressure and want to avoid it. Pressure to perform at work, win a competition, hit a deadline or grow a business can be uncomfortable. Pressure implies a good result or a bad one, a win or loss, joy or sadness. A negative outcome might mean shame, embarrassment, a feeling of failure or financial implications – all things we humans want to avoid!

At the start of the season, Doc Rivers shone a spotlight on a bare patch of the wall at the Boston Celtics clubhouse. The spot where the banner would go when they won. The spotlight never went out – it was a constant reminder to the team that team must win, that their fans counted on them. The Celtics beat the favourites, the LA Lakers, that year to win the MBA. Doc explains that putting yourself in a high-pressure situation is a privilege.

If we can learn not to be afraid of it, and to embrace it, this is a powerful principle we can all apply to our own lives. 

Pressure can help us perform better and achieve more.

To help you do this, you can make high-pressure situations feel less scary by not thinking of the outcome in terms of success or failure. Instead, think of them as a positive outcome, or a lesson learned. A win-win.

Not succeeding doesn't need to be shameful or embarrassing - people will admire you because you had the courage to try. Ask them! 

Consider:

• Where are you avoiding pressure in your life?
• How could you benefit by consciously creating more
• What are you really afraid of?
  

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