There is compelling research that backs the impact of our body language on our performance. There are some easy, painless ways to give yourself a boost of confidence before going into stressful situations that alters brain chemistry and impacts performance. We discuss this deeper, referencing this video and research, in our Maximum Influence course. Watch the video and challenge yourself to test out these performance boosting actions the next time you are faced with a stressful situation!

“…I really wanted to know, can you fake it till you make it? Like, can you do this just for a little while and actually experience a behavioral outcome that makes you seem more powerful? So we know that our nonverbals govern how other people think and feel about us. There’s a lot of evidence. But our question really was, do our nonverbals govern how we think and feel about ourselves?

There’s some evidence that they do. So, for example, we smile when we feel happy, but also, when we’re forced to smile by holding a pen in our teeth like this, it makes us feel happy. So it goes both ways. When it comes to power, it also goes both ways. So when you feel powerful, you’re more likely to do this, but it’s also possible that when you pretend to be powerful, you are more likely to actually feel powerful.”

Click on the video above to watch, or view the full written transcript on this Ted Talk here