Don't judge people who give themselves what they need to think.

When faced with a critical or stressful situation requiring you to make some important decisions one great way to aim for success is by offering yourself some space to think. This can be going for a run, listening to some music, dancing, meditating or perhaps playing tennis.

I was surprised to read that the mayor of Berlin is being asked to resign because he chose to play tennis when faced with the challenge of the biggest electrical power outage since WW2. I don’t know anything about the mayor; I only go by the short article in a Swedish newspaper. The article I read could of course have been lacking critical information.

However, as a coach I often talk with my clients about the importance of giving themselves what they need to feel they are making the best decision. Taking some time to reduce stress hormones allows you to use the prefrontal cortex responsible for executive functions like decision-making, planning and impulse control and to override the limbic system’s emotional impulses.

So, without knowing anything about the mayor of Berlin I do feel I need to stress that we should not judge people when they take what they need to make the best decision, this could well be a game of tennis.

What do you need to make the best decisions in stressful situations? Do you know what your teammates do to improve their thinking? When faced with a critical or stressful situation requiring you to make some important decisions one great way to aim for success is by offering yourself some space to think. This can be going for a run, listening to some music, dancing, meditating, walking your dog or perhaps playing tennis.

I was surprised to read that the mayor of Berlin is being asked to resign because he chose to play tennis when faced with the challenge of the biggest electrical power outage since WW2. I don’t know anything about the mayor; I only go by the short article in a Swedish newspaper. The article I read could of course have been lacking critical information.

However, as a coach I often talk with my clients about the importance of giving themselves what they need to feel they are making the best decision. Taking some time to reduce stress hormones allows you to use the prefrontal cortex responsible for executive functions like decision-making, planning and impulse control and to override the limbic system’s emotional impulses.

So, without knowing anything about the mayor of Berlin I do feel I need to stress that we should not judge people when they take what they need to make the best decision, this could well be a game of tennis.

What do you need to make the best decisions in stressful situations? Do you know what your teammates do to improve their thinking?