In an era of cut-throat competition, every walk of life — education, sports, corporate sector, entertainment industry, et al — is bugged by ‘Performance Angst’ (anxiety/fear).
Even after the 5,151 anniversary of the holy book Bhagawad Gita, which comprises as well as teaches the eternal mantra of ‘detachment’ while performing one’s duty, and even though it being a sure shot antidote for the human malaise called ‘dilemma’ and also being a lighthouse of the divine gospel of true ‘Karma Yoga’, the whole mankind is mired with the penchant and passion for the ‘fruit of actions’. And thus, ‘performance fret’ rules the roost.
Instance of an anxious Class XII examinee or an IITian waiting for the results is synonymous with the anxious moments experienced by a CEO encountering the ‘not-so-good” quarterly results in the corporate sector and waiting for the market responses. Since emotion is a gift of nature bestowed on human beings and emotionality is often deemed to be a malady, and as everything one does is accompanied by a symphony of hidden emotions, same is the case with the parents waiting for the kindergarten results of their kids.
The course of lingering over the outcomes of one’s actions (performance) laced with anxious moments exerts lots of pressure on both the siblings and their guardians. It also adversely affects the day-to-day productivity. Such a stress and strain built up internally can very often take an individual close to catastrophe. Aspiration to excel in one’s respective field and the crazy bid to be triumphant in the tug of war is pretty brawny in a number of children and adults in this competitive world. They yearn for meeting assorted expectations of both theirs and others.
It is pertinent to realise that despite being apt enough for problem-solving, the prolonged stress and pressure to perform best deters the brain from its normal functioning. The human brain (a divine gift that has made man a unique rational being) stops functioning at its normal capability and begins to ‘underperform’. In spite of being intelligent, the ‘Performance Angst’ leads to under-performance and bestows one with the tag ‘loser’ owing to ‘constant failure’.
It is vital that the brain networks need to function in unison. While the productive networks have to be ‘turned on’, the unproductive ones (emotions) need to be ‘shut down’ for right responses until the task is total and the results are borne out. ‘Performance Anxiety’ needs to be measured quantitatively to discern what for an individual is being influenced by persistent pressure despite being an intelligent student, executive or sports person.
Failure due to pressure needs detailed quantitative along with qualitative assessments, proper diagnosis and corrective actions. Quantitative and qualitative measures lead to the understanding of brain networks that fail under undue and prolonged stressful situations. With detailed measurement of specific brain networks, it becomes plausible to re-engineer them for sustainable success. This applies to all intelligent students, executives, professionals and sports persons pushy to pull off.
Since anxiety is a symptom of systemic failure, measurability appears to be a must for us to perform optimally in the current market scenario. We all need to be aware of today’s ‘hyper-competitive’ scenario. Competition is a reality. But, being adversely affected by it connotes that some brain networks are offline and those networks coupled with anxiety, panic, and such emotions come online to warn the individual that something is amiss. The action-oriented networks need to come online and suppress activation for stress-related networks.
Quantitative methods can aid one clutch curative actions and act positively to rid oneself of ‘performance fretfulness’. Only apt and meticulous remedial channels can pave the path for sustainable success and the attainment of ambitions.
(Dr Rout is a management expert based in Bhubaneswar)