Training for Courage to Perform Your Best Every Time

We train and practice our skills, but training our minds to focus when we’re nervous is how we reach our potential

Image credit: Nagaiets.

As strivers, we are used to “doing”. We relentlessly push ourselves to meet our goals, every day, as we prepare for every big day. As performers, though, we need to think about “being” to truly find our best self.

When I conduct an orchestra concert, I pace backstage before the concert, tapping my baton on the walls while I manage my nervous energy. I can usually transform this energy now into positive adrenalin when I run out onto the stage. But I’m working at being a better, more present, performer all the time.

There have been many times when I’ve started a concert and was distracted by nerves for the first piece on the program, taking a while to get into the zone. That’s not good enough. It should be right at the beginning that I can count on my mind to be present.

Sometimes in the middle of a performance, an unexpected problem, mistake, mishap occurs, and it causes all of us to be distracted. In a sport this could be a goal against, or someone passing us on the track — in a speech, a moment of forgetting where we are. In those critical moments, nerves, self-consciousness and inner mind chatter have the potential to take us down if we haven’t trained ourselves mentally.

Often I stand in front of extraordinary orchestras. I have to be “on” immediately. The first ten minutes are critical to our connection and whether they will trust me to lead them. What would happen if I showed them fear? If you’re a comedian or a speaker, you have the same issue. First impressions are important and you aren’t yet in your comfort zone when you first step onto the stage. We have to learn how to manage this short, but critical, time with our minds.

The Courage of Being vs. Doing

Courage is a multi-dimensional facet. On one level, it’s a determination, a self-driven push to go beyond where you’re comfortable. It’s a decision to strive for something. It’s what has gotten you this far.

And courage is also a quality of being. One where you have ‘let go’ of…