The world today is highly competitive, and standing out amongst the masses can be extremely stressful.Performance pressure, anxiety and tension are caused by mindset of inflated expectations, fear of failure and an unhealthy attitude toward your competition. Let's look at each of these.

Unrealistic goals, unhealthy competition and high expectations have been identified as the causes of performance pressure. Competition starts right from the time we step into the world of education through school and it seems to just increase exponentially as we prepare for college entrances, appear for competitive exams and then step into the race of becoming a professional.

This can be extremely challenging, but preparing, planning well and channeling that pressure into focused output can help.

When you develop expectations with regard to outcomes and results, become tight, tentative and tense simply because you cannot control these. You always experience anxiety when you have no control. If you have prepared well you can expect the emergence of your best, expect to do well, expect things to come together, expect that something good will take place, expect to learn about yourself and the game you play and expect to feel happy about your performances. Focusing on all little things help you relax and let your body and mind do what they have been trained to do.Everyone fails, makes mistakes, has setbacks, and loses from time to time, even the best of the best. In fact one of the essential qualities of a champion is the ability to tolerate failure. Champions see competitors as help partners who bring out our best. No need to feel pressure and stress over an opponent. Simply see them as tools to help you create the best in you. It push you to discover things about yourself.

