I’m in a different discipline (classical music performance) where the demand for perfection is omnipresent; so as with you, performance anxiety is commonplace.

I’m in a different discipline (classical music performance) where the demand for perfection is omnipresent; so as with you, performance anxiety is commonplace. I strongly recommend “The Confident Mind” by Nate Zinsser, PhD. The book is difficult to summarize succinctly but it addresses a systematic approach to building confidence both in terms of a background mental state and in terms of execution. The methodology involves constantly mining the past and present for positive material to build a “bank account” of these moments. One exercise that I find helpful is the ESP journal (Effort, Success, Progress) It’s a structured daily journal done in bullet format that links up honest skill-building effort to observable progress and then success, however narrow. Other parts of the method involve detailed visualization exercises. He also talks about the immediate pre-performance routine that you can run through, CBA. C = Cue your mantra (“I’ve got this. Time to shine.) B = Breathe deeply into the body. A = Attach your attention. CBA. I find the attention part the most helpful. The anxious mind spins off into every unproductive direction imaginable. By consciously deciding to focus the mind to a particular element of the performance you can help prevent that. In music it would be something like the decision to focus only on the attack of each note. In standup presentations, sometimes else, vocal quality, the sense of groundedness in my feet, etc. He also has a chapter on post-performance review. Unsurprisingly, it’s about letting in only positive aspects. There’s a role for taking an honest look at what can be done to work on skills; but it’s all cast in the light of positivity. Much of confident performance is about deluding oneself into that state… Sorry this is a little scattered; it’s from memory. I’ve recommended the book to many students and colleagues.