Negatively stressed? What’s your chosen response?

“It’s subtle this performance coaching stuff, but it works. This time last year if circumstances had been the same I’d have been sh*!ing myself and unhealthily pessimistic. This year I’m still pessimistic, but understand that this pessimism is actually useful. If I use it appropriately, it helps me to perform better. Also, last year, I’d have eaten crap, drank too much and responded negatively to the stress. Now I think… ‘I feel stressed, better go to the gym’.”

Roughly these words were said to me by one of our clients last week who has been coached around performing in challenging circumstances. He understands how to perform a lot better now and this new self awareness has enabled him to choose how to respond to the feelings he is experiencing in these testing times, and therefore use them to stay in control and fully confident of his own performance.

Is anyone else feeling the strain? How are you currently responding? How would you like to respond? Are the answers to these last two questions the same?