Following are three ways to handle common fear-related issues. The “seventy by seven” technique is useful for uncovering hidden fears. Breathing normally helps you handle nervousness. Lastly, I give some tips on handling exams and tests.
The “seventy by seven” technique is a good way to explore hidden thoughts. It helps you draw out issues and concerns that you may be hiding or denying.
Here are the basic steps:
1. Create a short positive statement that you feel may have deeper complications. The shorter the better. Some examples may be:
· I am a successful commercial pilot
· I am a commercial photographer
· I am a doctor
· I am OK with heights
2. On a notepad or on the computer, start writing. Write down or type the statement once. Say it in your mind, and then write down the first thought that follows. Don’t try to analyze it. It may seem unrelated. It may be a feeling or emotion, or a recollection of a previous event. Regardless, write a brief note and move on.
3. Repeat step 2 seventy times in one sitting. At the end of the sitting, read through your responses and highlight any themes. Each sitting should take up to an hour.
4. Repeat the process for seven consecutive days. If you miss a day, go back to day one.
At the end of the seven days, review your notes and look at some of the key thoughts. Write those key thoughts up separately on a summary note, and then keep them all together.
This technique involves much time and commitment, so use it sparingly for important issues. What you typically find is a few thoughts come up that help you see what has been causing you difficulty in the past. Some explode into your mind as a sudden realization. Some only come after reviewing your comments. If it didn’t bring out anything of value, it may be that you’re OK about the statement. Alternatively, it could mean there is something deeper that needs outside help to bring it to the surface. Either way, it’s your choice whether to probe it further or to accept it and move on.
Your breathing often changes when you feel fearful or nervous, usually for the worse. You tense up and either hold your breath or start to hyperventilate (breathe too fast). This is a self-perpetuating loop. Holding your breath or hyperventilating triggers more nervousness.
The key is to get your breathing back to normal. Here are a few exercises that can help you achieve this:
· Simulate or visualize the exercise that makes you nervous. Focus on keeping your breathing calm and steady. See the pressure increasing while you stay calm and steady, handling each event with ease.
· Use the shunt technique. Put yourself into a low state, visualizing the scenario that makes you nervous. Breathe right out and hold it there until you start to feel that urge to breathe in. When you do, think “wooosh,” take a breath in, sit up, pull your shoulders back and say to yourself “My breath is calm and normal.” Focus on taking four to five normal breaths after that, and then repeat the exercise.
· If you occasionally suffer from hyperventilation, you may want to try a similar swish exercise where you simulate the symptoms of hyperventilation, and then get your breathing back under control. Only do this with someone knowledgeable, like a doctor or coach.
· Find a way to laugh regularly. A good laugh forces you to take a breath and clear your lungs. It also has a favorable neurological effect on the brain. Associate something in your environment with something funny that causes you to laugh each time you look at it. A common tip for those nervous while speaking publicly is to imagine part or all the audience naked. During a test, you may want to imagine the clock falling off the wall on to the teacher. It knocks the teacher out so you can all sneak out of the room. Even if when you look at the clock you don’t feel like laughing, force yourself to smile, laugh silently and take that breath.
· Have someone or something nearby remind you to breathe normally. For example, if you are nervous during a presentation ask someone in the audience to smile or tug their ear each time you look in their direction. Use this as a trigger to take a breath and breathe normally.
· Relax your posture and muscle tension. If your body is tense, this often constricts your breathing. Trigger yourself to relax more often. Stretch and move around before an activity to help release some of that nervous tension.
· Use a mnemonic or similar memory technique to remind you to breathe at stressful times. An example from my flight training is the ACE mnemonic, which stands for “Airspeed, Calm, Eyes outside.” I linked the mnemonic to the airspeed indicator. Every time I checked my airspeed I thought “ACE.” When I said “Calm,” I remembered to relax my body and mind (staying alert though) and normalize my breathing.
These exercises are not a replacement for preparation or training. Controlling your breathing doesn’t help you remember something you didn’t study, or perform something you don’t already know how to do.
Exams and tests may cause feelings of fear and nervousness. These feelings can reduce your ability to perform well. Here are four ways to minimize the nervousness that’s sometimes associated with exams and tests.
· Understand the source of nervousness. As you progress through a course, you often form your own subjective view on how well you have learned the material. Exams are often a more objective way of confirming your understanding and retention. This realignment of your view is sometimes difficult though. Have you ever walked out of an exam feeling you did well, however when you got the results you find you did poorly? You may blame something about the test, rather than accept that you may have had a different view of your own understanding. It’s a common behavior.
An uninvited change of your personal view often causes intellectual pain. The potential for this pain is often a main cause for nervousness before an exam. You can reduce the nervousness if you accept the potential for the change, and welcome it as further progress towards your goal.
· Reframe the purpose of the exam. As a pilot navigates an aircraft, they often spend greater than ninety percent of the flight off course. Navigation involves not only staying on course, but also getting back on course after deviations from plan. One does not suddenly “fail” navigation as soon as one is off course by more than a mile!
Reframe your exams as progress checks. They are just waypoints to verify your progress along a planned track. If you are off course, then your exam helps you get back on track. Even if you fail the exam, it simply means you have some more work to achieve your goal. It doesn’t mean your journey is suddenly over!
· Reverse roles. One of the techniques I use when doing check-rides or flight exams is to reverse the roles in my mind. I visualize or model myself as the instructor or examiner, and the person next to me as a new student. I “forget” the new student may have over three thousand hours of experience. I see myself as having years of experience and that this is just another training run. This way the flight becomes a demonstration, rather than a test. You can use this technique in many other ways. For example, reverse the roles in a job interview, where you become the interviewer. You’re there to make sure the job is right for you. Apply a similar approach for sales calls. Instead of trying to sell your product, take the role of the buyer. You want to make sure your product is the right one for their needs, so you ask many questions about how they might use it.
· Relax to move forward faster. Use the ninety percent technique. If you try to do something at one hundred percent effort, you are more likely to fail or make mistakes. This often costs you more time. Instead, relax a little and work at ninety percent effort. You’re likely to get there faster.
In the same way, I suggest you don’t aim for one hundred percent or perfection in tests. Your first minor mistake may cause undue stress and again cost you more. Instead, aim for between ninety and one hundred percent, and accept the mistakes if they come.
I don’t know if it was deliberate, but the instructor pilot who did my first two major flight tests quizzed me harder and harder until I made a mistake. This was before we had even left the ground. Until that point, I felt some pressure to “keep up the perfect test.” Once I made that mistake I relaxed and didn’t worry about achieving perfection. I passed both times.
Some of the greatest performances by athletes have occurred when they “gave up on the hope of gold.” Once they relaxed, their natural instincts and abilities took over. They didn’t have interference from wanting a perfect performance. They then came closer to perfection than they ever had before.