The following Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson,

and is narrated by Tina Lehman.

Primal Performance, How to Stay Cool under pressure.

Think for a minute about how many times you've felt pressure today.

Pressure to do something you were nervous to do.

Pressure to perform in the moment.

Pressure to make the right choice.

Pressure to take a big step toward a change or experience you want in your life.

What was it like?

I find pressure to be an intriguing concept. It certainly feels stressful, but it's ultimately more than stress. Whereas stress

at its core is really just a state of physical and or emotional strain, generally in response

to what we somehow perceive as challenging circumstances,

it's initially a response versus a force, but can become a force when chronic. As a result,

stress is most essentially a reaction we can at times avoid or use any range of strategies to minimize

or manage. Pressure, on the other hand, is more of an input,

a force not just acting in us but on us, influencing and compelling us toward action, much like

the concept in physics. The pressure we experience may come from outside expectations or from

internal sources, such as perfectionism.

But the net effect is the same. In one way or another, we're called to act.

Let me say it a different way. When it comes to stress, the most pressing issue is how we take care of it.

When we're talking about pressure, however, the question is how will we meet it? Let's look

at some Grock-style primal examples, shall we? In response to a circling predator, Grock is pressured

...