Feeling pressure? Try this mental strategy.

A quick way to understand why we feel pressure is to think about the size of the gap between how badly we want something and how much we fear not getting it (or being able to do it). The larger that gap is, the more pressure we feel. The smaller that gap, the less pressure.

So, a strategy for lowering the pressure you feel is by minimizing the gap between the thing you want and your fear of not getting it. The discipline is to reduce the intensity of your want, lower your fear of loss, or both. Just enough to release the pressure that harms your ability to perform the way you want.

The time is now. Do the work.