How To Perform Under Pressure
How To! with Mike Pesca
Peach Fish Projects
4.3 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 12 November 2019
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mike's dream job of playing bass in a Chicago orchestra is within reach — if only he can conquer his nerves and master the audition. In this episode of How To!, we bring in Dr. Don Greene, a peak performance psychologist who's worked with Wall Street traders and Olympic athletes, to see if he can help Mike perform his best under the spotlight. The secret? Jumping jacks, extra sleep, and watching reruns of The Office.
Do you have a problem that needs solving? Have you found the advice on our podcast helpful? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi everyone, I'm Susie Weiss, and I've noticed there's just simply not enough podcasts in the world. So I'm launching my own. Let's go. Let's go, baby. Second Thought is a weekly show about pop culture. The stuff everyone's been binging, arguing about, obsessing over. Here's the thing about heated rivalry. I mean, even the most devoted swifties, I think we can agree, not our best work. We'll be hosting thoughtful conversations with culture's most important figures. Talk about genius. |
| 0:22.6 | Talk about generational talent. |
| 0:23.7 | Coming to headphones near you on can agree not our best work. We'll be hosting thoughtful conversations with culture's most important figures. |
| 0:21.8 | Talk about genius. |
| 0:22.6 | Talk about generational talent. |
| 0:23.7 | Coming to headphones near you on April 17th, with a first guest you won't want to miss. |
| 0:27.8 | Available wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:41.7 | If musicians get off to a good start, they're probably going to play the rest of the piece well. |
| 0:49.0 | All the problems come in in the first phrases, because this is where all the pressure builds up before it. The weeks, the months before, thinking about this audition, worrying about it, not getting enough sleep, |
| 0:54.0 | and you don't |
| 0:54.8 | know until that first note comes out if it's going to come out good or not. So what most people |
| 0:59.4 | do is they hesitate. They play it safe, and that's what loses auditions. |
| 1:07.9 | Welcome to how to. I'm Charles Duhigg. Each week on this show, we help folks figure out how to bring their A-game to life's toughest challenges. And on today's episode, we've got a listener with a very special talent. |
| 1:19.6 | My name is Michael Martin. I'm a bassist. I'm from Allentown, Pennsylvania. |
| 1:24.9 | Mike reached out to us about an upcoming audition. |
| 1:34.1 | It's for the Chicago Lyric Opera, which is an amazing orchestra in a city that I really love. |
| 1:40.3 | Mike's girlfriend lives near Chicago, and so landing a spot in the Chicago Lyric Opera, that would be amazing. |
| 1:46.0 | But in this audition, Mike will be competing against dozens of other classical musicians, some of whom have been playing professionally for years, and he's nervous about performing under all that pressure. |
| 1:52.0 | I'm thinking a lot about how much I want this job and how much it means to me. |
| 1:57.0 | It would mean like a perfect, a perfect life for me. |
| 2:00.0 | It's a dream job and a dream city. I get to be |
| 2:02.6 | close to my girlfriend. So all those thoughts kind of start weighing on me and I keep thinking, |
... |
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