“How we navigate our highest-pressure moments has a huge impact on the overall trajectory of our lives, both in terms of how successful we are and how much we enjoy the journey along the way.” – Dane Jensen
My guest today is Dane Jensen, author and CEO of Third Factor, a company that helps people become better coaches, more resilient performers, and more collaborative teammates. Dane has deep expertise in navigating pressure, having worked with high performers in elite sport, academia, business, and government.
He is also a keynote speaker, instructor at Smith School of Business, Queen’s University as well as an affiliate faculty member at UNC. In today’s episode, we explore Dane’s excellent new book, The Power of Pressure: Why Pressure Isn’t the Problem, It’s the Solution.
You’ll learn to:
- Understand the “pressure equation” of importance, uncertainty, and volume
- Escape the traps of pressure with effective tools and tactics
- Be ambidextrous so that you can handle pressure both in peak pressure moments and over the long haul
- Utilize the most important preparation tip I’ve ever heard, and more!
Click that play button to listen! Don’t forget to subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts!
What Makes Us Feel Pressured
Pressure is really a function of three things: importance, uncertainty, and volume. The first thing that has to be there for us to experience pressure is importance.
The importance that we have assigned to the outcome is directly correlated to the pressure that we feel in a situation. If you don’t care about the outcome, it’s not going to create pressure.
Dealing With Everyday Pressures
We need to be able to connect with importance to be able to push through the daily grind. I need to have a really good answer to the question ‘why am I doing this’? Why is this important to me? Why am I putting in the time, effort, and energy for this?
The answer to those questions will be a very crucial source of energy in the long haul.
A More Effective Tool Than Willpower
People sometimes feel like all they need to do is to will themselves to focus and say ‘no’ to distractions, but that’s not realistic. It’s a losing battle if you’re only relying on willpower to say ‘no’.
It’s more effective to remind yourself of your principles, act on them, and create a structure that allows you to make decisions without relying on willpower.
Links and Resources
Connect with Dane: LinkedIn, Website, Twitter
The Power of Pressure by Dane Jensen (book)
The Courage to Be Disliked by Fumitake Koga and Ichiro Kishimi (book)
