Ceri Evans > Quotes

“The big mental shift in performance under pressure comes when we can feel fear but accept deep inside that we will mentally survive the moment. Once the mental threat in a situation is contained, it loses its power to overwhelm us emotionally and shut us down, allowing us to re-energise and face the challenge.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: Change the Way You Feel, Think and Act Under Pressure

“On the back of her gratitude for the opportunity to talk and connect with her children, a powerful new insight presents itself. Although she can’t provide as much as some parents materially, there’s is no reason why she can’t develop their inner strength in a way that others will struggle to match. Dealing with pressure and having to think clearly in emotional situations have helped her today, both at work and at home, and passing this gift on to her children will help them face adversity too.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: The international bestseller on how to change the way you think, feel and act from top psychiatrist and former soccer playe

“Instead of someone else’s expectations, we’re driven by our own intention. Instead of being affected by someone else’s scrutiny, we have a clear sense of where we are right now, in this moment. And instead of someone else’s consequences, we are focused on our current priority. The mental recipe for internally driven people is intention, moment, priority, or IMP.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: The international bestseller on how to change the way you think, feel and act from top psychiatrist and former soccer playe

“Ngaire notices how the anxiety of a big match affects her teammates differently: some go silent, some get chatty; some laugh a lot.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: Change the Way You Feel, Think and Act Under Pressure

“Elite athletes often refer to their internal battle to overcome their doubts and anxieties – their dark side. Addressing this side of us will always be uncomfortable, but this is the only way of pushing beyond our current limits.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: The international bestseller on how to change the way you think, feel and act from top psychiatrist and former soccer playe

“Key elements of judgment are expectations, scrutiny and consequences (ESC).”
― Ceri Evans

“He breathes in and visualises a piece of play where his team get the ball and break forward on the counter-attack.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: Change the Way You Feel, Think and Act Under Pressure

“The things that are really worth chasing involve pressure and that’s what makes them rewarding.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: Change the Way You Feel, Think and Act Under Pressure

“If you restrict yourself to performing only in comfortable situations, your life will miss the fulfilment available to those who don’t restrict themselves. But if you embrace them, those challenging, high-pressure moments can be especially powerful and rewarding.
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― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: Change the Way You Feel, Think and Act Under Pressure

“Pressure is perilous. The knife-edge, risk–reward seesaw explains why many people do everything they can to avoid or escape from stressful situations. But a minority of people do the opposite. They walk towards these moments of truth, seeking the things they also fear.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: Change the Way You Feel, Think and Act Under Pressure

“To keep the strategy simple for the players, he’ll ask them to adopt a system of counter-attacking when they gain possession of the ball.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: The international bestseller on how to change the way you think, feel and act from top psychiatrist and former soccer playe

“We always start with what worked well, then consider where we fell short of our intent. This protects us from looking more at the negative more than the positive.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: Change the Way You Feel, Think and Act Under Pressure

“Other people can impose expectations from without, but only we can set our intent from within.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: The international bestseller on how to change the way you think, feel and act from top psychiatrist and former soccer playe

“To identify our internal obstacles we can look for inconvenient facts, those uncomfortable truths about our performance that we don’t usually admit to. The word ‘inconvenient’ seems to strike the right chord – not too strong but not too weak. And calling them ‘facts’ means we can’t deny them.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: The international bestseller on how to change the way you think, feel and act from top psychiatrist and former soccer playe

“The quality of the parent–child interaction is more important than the circumstances in which a child grows up. People can be emotionally resilient despite a difficult early family life.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: The international bestseller on how to change the way you think, feel and act from top psychiatrist and former soccer playe

“She realises that she is overthinking things. She follows her three-breath routine to settle her nerves, calm her body and clear her mind.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: Change the Way You Feel, Think and Act Under Pressure

“If you restrict yourself to performing only in comfortable situations, your life will miss the fulfilment available to those who don’t restrict themselves. But if you embrace them, those challenging, high-pressure moments can be especially powerful and rewarding.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: The international bestseller on how to change the way you think, feel and act from top psychiatrist and former soccer playe

“Typically we try to avoid paying attention to mental and physical discomfort, which is the surest way to make sure they persist! Trying to deny them only gives them power. It feeds them through fear and gives them energy through emotion. Paying attention to tension in a different way – going towards it, feeling it, activating it, then releasing it – reverses this process. As the fear and emotion are felt, they naturally diminish and the tension dissolves.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: The international bestseller on how to change the way you think, feel and act from top psychiatrist and former soccer playe

“She notices that she’s tense and has gone over to the RED side – lost in ‘What if?’s, overthinking. To get a grip on her emotions, she quietly runs through her basic three breaths routine while she drives. She imagines breathing energy and calm deep into her belly – and breathing out tension and stress.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: Change the Way You Feel, Think and Act Under Pressure

“Instead of being distracted by doubt, we need to trust our ability to handle what is in front of us. This self-trust forms the RED backbone to support our BLUE focused attention. Banishing doubt and worry avoids overthinking – that busy mind that arises from an internal debate about what we’re doing.”
― Ceri evans, Perform Under Pressure: Change the Way You Feel, Think and Act Under Pressure

“The place to start is with ourselves, because if we are vulnerable to judgment from others, the chances are we are even harder on ourselves. It’s easy to underestimate how much disapproval, criticism and scolding we put ourselves through.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: Change the Way You Feel, Think and Act Under Pressure

“When we are ‘in the RED’ we can lose emotional control, overthink and get diverted. When we are ‘in the BLUE’, we can hold our nerve, maintain our focus and stay on task.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: Change the Way You Feel, Think and Act Under Pressure

“Paying attention to tension in a different way – going towards it, feeling it, activating it, then releasing it – reverses this process. As the fear and emotion are felt, they naturally diminish and the tension dissolves.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: Change the Way You Feel, Think and Act Under Pressure

“It’s not a time to overthink the situation, it’s a time to take emotional control.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: Change the Way You Feel, Think and Act Under Pressure

“Rico completes the whole process, silently saying to himself, ‘Trust.’ He enjoys doing the Intensity Clarity Execution routine because it is short, simple and structured, and it makes him feel light, bright and clear. He uses it three times a day leading into a match, which seems to settle his body and mind down, reducing doubt and overthinking.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: The international bestseller on how to change the way you think, feel and act from top psychiatrist and former soccer playe

“Being internally driven also feels different. Instead of feeling the weight of expectation coming down on us from the outside, we feel power flowing up from within. External pressure breaks us down, makes us shrink, and burdens us; internal drive builds us up, makes us grow, and energises us.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: The international bestseller on how to change the way you think, feel and act from top psychiatrist and former soccer playe

“Our mirror neurons – specialised nerve cells that allow us to pick up on how other people are feeling – allow us to feel the fear in others. And when we see people feel the fear but take on the challenge anyway, we are inspired. It is a signature moment for performance under pressure.”
― Ceri Evans, Perform Under Pressure: Change the Way You Feel, Think and Act Under Pressure