Performance Anxiety - the fear that what we are able to show of ourselves is not good enough.

There are three variables in this fear..

• What do we have to show?
• How are we able to show it?
• What is good enough?

First, there is the idea that comes from within, the SELF.  Then there is the ability to display it accurately and fully.  Finally, there is the definition of the expectation.

Sometimes these three variables work collectively to cause a person to feel afraid in almost every situation.  Sometimes only one variable is affected creating anxiety in only one or a few areas of performance.  

For, example, someone can be confident and highly competent when alone, but is anxious, even to the point of collapse, when presenting to a crowd.

It can be specific to a task, like sexual performance or an intimate conversation.

It can be the requirement to display competence in a sport, when even a highly competent athlete collapses at a crucial game, an artiste at a performance, or a bright student at an exam.

SELF-IMAGE and Performance Anxiety

Performance Anxiety is perhaps most directly related to our SELF-IMAGE.  The more secure it is, the less uncomfortable we are with what we reveal of SELF.   The more that SELF-IMAGE is defined by external attributes or is undefined, the more we will feel the need to hide, replace, or dismiss the value of SELF. 

Consequently, we need to recognize the innate instability of the elements that generate change, understand rather than aim to manage them, and immunize our SELF-IMAGE to their challenges.  Thus, we can present the SELF as a source of new information, not the presenter of a performance that is deemed correct by the expectations of the audience.

Prometheum Institute  and Performance Anxiety

At Prometheum Institute, you learn to deal with these variables rationally.   We teach that 

• nothing and no one is ever "good enough".  That is a fact of life.  A task is, therefore, a request to reveal what we know, not a challenge to show competency.  Since all conditions change continuously, the ideal application to the apparently same situation today will be inadequate tomorrow, or vice versa. 
• what we need to demonstrate is our creativity, what we CAN know, not just what we already know.  Everyone can grow.  We learn that a solution that is insufficient today will be better or more applicable tomorrow... as long as we are willing to grow.
• our results are not a measure of who we are.  The most proficient golfer or the most talented pianist can fail because of an illness or a temporary physiological imbalance, even though understanding of the task is full, competent and relevant.
• performance is an expression of self, not a measure of competence.  Our real objective in life is to do because we feel good rather than try to feel good because of what we have done.  We learn to define our SELF-IMAGE by our ability to create solutions, not by the solutions we create.