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Choke, October 2010
Hardcover
What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To
Free Press
October 2010
On Sale: September 21, 2010
304 pages ISBN: 1416596178 EAN: 9781416596172 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Why do the smartest students often do poorly on standardized
tests?Why did you tank that interview or miss that golf
swing when you should have had it in the bag? Why do you
mess up when it matters the most—and how can you perform
your best instead? It happens to all of us. You’ve prepared for days, weeks,
even years for the big day when you will finally show your
stuff—in academics, in your career, in sports—but when the
big moment arrives, nothing seems to work. You hit the wrong
note, drop the ball, get stumped by a simple question. In
other words, you choke. It’s not fun to think about, but now
there’s good news: This doesn’t have to happen.Dr. Sian
Beilock, an expert on performance and brain science, reveals
in Choke the astonishing new science of why we all too often
blunder when the stakes are high. What happens in our brain
and body when we experience the dreaded performance anxiety?
And what are we doing differently when everything magically
"clicks" into place and the perfect golf swing, tricky test
problem, or high-pressure business pitch becomes easy? In an
energetic tour of the latest brain science, with surprising
insights on every page, Beilock explains the inescapable
links between body and mind; reveals the surprising
similarities among the ways performers, students, athletes,
and business people choke; and shows how to succeed
brilliantly when it matters most. In lively prose and
accessibly rendered science, Beilock examines how attention
and working memory guide human performance, how experience
and practice and brain development interact to create our
abilities, and how stress affects all these factors. She
sheds new light on counter-intuitive realities, like why the
highest performing people are most susceptible to choking
under pressure, why we may learn foreign languages best when
we’re not paying attention, why early childhood athletic
training can backfire, and how our emotions can make us both
smarter and dumber. All these fascinating findings about
academic, athletic, and creative intelligence come together
in Beilock’s new ideas about performance under pressure—and
her secrets to never choking again. Whether you’re at the
Olympics, in the boardroom, or taking the SAT, Beilock’s
clear, prescriptive guidance shows how to remain cool under
pressure—the key to performing well when everything’s on the
line.
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