Fridays For You: a trick for stressful situations

About to go into a stressful or high pressure situation?  (A negotiation, a public speaking engagement, a job interview?)

Squeeze your LEFT fist as hard as you can for 30 seconds, then let go.  (Make sure you're getting to a full 30 seconds - that's a longer time than you think it is, when you're focused on something like this.  If you can't see a clock with a second hand from wherever you are, count Mississippi.  Remember to breathe.)

Unlikely though it may be, this trick dramatically improves the performance of athletes performing tasks for which they have trained...and you've trained for your job, too!  Published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology as a study on preventing people from "choking under pressure," this technique is called "hemisphere-specific priming," and there's a growing body of research that shows that enhanced right-hemisphere activity (what you're forcing when you squeeze your left fist) facilitates skilled performance.

This is no substitute for preparing properly for one of those high stress situations...do your due diligence!  But this tiny trick won't hurt, and could give you that slight edge that you need in a high stress situation.

Try it - let me know if it works for you!