Anxiety Can Bring Out the Best

The Wall Street Journal:

You have an important presentation tomorrow but your heart is racing and your mind is serving up a steady stream of what-ifs: What if I’m not fully prepared? What if it goes badly? You’re running out of time. The last thing you need is all this anxiety.

Actually, a little anxiety may be just what you need to focus your efforts and perform at your peak, psychologists say.

Somewhere between checked out and freaked out lies an anxiety sweet spot, some researchers say, in which a person is motivated to succeed yet not so anxious that performance takes a dive. This moderate amount of anxiety keeps people on their toes, enables them to juggle multiple tasks and puts them on high alert for potential problems.

Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal