Good morning and welcome to the Increase Your Impact Podcast. I'm Justin Sua, episode 1,976. Today I heard a story of a woman who was telling about her high school days where her and her dad would study, her dad would help her study for a test. She would know all of the words. She would study extremely hard. She was ready.

She had it down pat until the test came. She'd go to take the test and then she'd fail miserably

because she couldn't access the information that she thought she had studied for with her father.

And then her dad gave her this analogy that completely changed her perspective on taking

tests.

He tells her that your mind is like a box.

When you are relaxed, when you are enjoying the moment, the box is open.

And then you're going to be able to have access and have access to the things that you studied.

However, when you are feeling pressure, when you are tense, when you are tight, the box is closed.

And you will not have access to all of the things that you studied.

And that resonated a lot with me.

It resonated with her.

She said she has never forgot about it. And that resonated a lot with me. It resonated with her. She said she

has never forgot about it. And it made me think about the same is true in performance and in life.

I think there's a lot of truth to that analogy. When we're relaxed, when we're enjoying the moment,

when you're able to focus on the process, whatever you need to do

to take pressure off yourself, things tend to flow a lot better. You're a little bit more

resilient. You're a little bit more creative. You're a little bit more fluid, a little bit more

explosive and fast and loose and easygoing. However, when you fill your mind with the, I have to get a good grade,

I have to win this game, I have to perform, then you close the box. You become a lot more tense,

a lot more tight, a lot more slow. Your decision making, your processing is bogged down.

And so today, if any of you are feeling pressure if you're

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