Welcome back. This is Savvy Psychologist. I'm Dr. Ellen Hendrickson and I'll help you meet life's challenges with evidence-based research, a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment.

So listener Adiel from England wrote in and asked how he can perform better under pressure.

Adele has spoken English as a second language for many years,

and he has excellent communication skills. But he notes that in high pressure situations, he sometimes

gets anxious and the words don't come

plus his accent becomes more pronounced so what can he do to remedy this? Well

anyone who's ever been in a similar situation, and that is all of us, knows how a deal feels.

Even if we've done a task a million times, like speak English, walk upstairs, or navigate the grocery store under pressure or observation

we get psyched out and lose the most basic of skills. Indeed a friend

told me that once during a lunch interview, she overthought how to swallow and had to sit for a few moments with a mouthful of ice tea before she could collect herself and figure it out.

In short, it's universal. Pressure, whether it's pushing down on me or

pressing down on you, makes us second-guess how to hold the putter, work the laser pointer, or pronounce niche, or is it niche, even though we usually

do all those things without a thought.

So what can you do in the moment?

Whether you're trying to ace an audition,

nail a presentation, shoot a free throw,

or spell coinonia for the win at the National Spelling Bee,

what can you do to pull out all the stops? Well this week let's get it done

with these three tips. Tip number one is get excited. So the researchers behind a hilarious but solid study in the

Journal of Experimental Psychology made participants seeing the opening lines of

journeys don't stop believing.

But right before the small town girl took that midnight train,

...