It is perfectly normal, in everyday life, to be confronted with sources of stress. Many situations force us to give our best: an exam, an interview for a prestigious position or an important meeting. A normal stress can then be felt, a "stage fright", which can even be beneficial to success. However, this stress turns into PERFORMANCE ANXIETY when it becomes too much and the person suffers from it.

The manifestations of performance anxiety can be present in four dimensions:

1) On the thought level

• Negative self-perception
• Presence of distorted thoughts, often negative, which can invade the mind

2) On the emotional level

• ear, stress and discomfort during an evaluation.
• Extreme fear of performing poorly in an exam or other evaluation situation.
• Possible anxiety or panic attacks before or during certain situations
• Feeling of inefficiency

3) On the physiological level

• Presence of numerous somatic disorders such as migraines, digestive problems, tremors, muscle tension

Performance anxiety has many impacts on a person's life.

4) In behaviors

• Fear of undertaking a project for which the outcome is uncertain and which could potentially end in failure leads to avoidance of the task.
• Avoidance/escape of criticism.
• Constantly seeking positive feedback.
• Striving for exaggerated perfection, perfectionism.

Performance anxiety also promotes low self-esteem, lack of confidence in one's project, dreading failure and generalizing one's worth when a project does not succeed for example.

These are irrational thoughts that the individual has about himself, the world and the future and that generate anxiety. Here are some examples of irrational beliefs that generate anxiety:

• All-or-nothing thinking: if I don't pass this exam, I will never be competent in my field.
• Over-generalization: I failed one exam, I will fail them all.
• Belief that failure would be unbearable, since it would highlight one's incompetence and lack of value as a person.
• Belief that one has no right to make mistakes.
• Maintenance of considerably high ideals of success, which are simply unattainable.
• Perception of success as considerably more important than learning itself.

It is easy as an entrepreneur to fall victim to this phenomenon. Indeed, launching a new project is a great source of stress and this profession requires a lot of autonomy. We are responsible for our own income, we have to find our own customers, we have to improve constantly to face the competition, vacations are only allowed if the income is sufficient.

All in all, the workload is much heavier, the responsibilities are greater, and that's why our Coworking space is proud to count among its members such competent and caring companies, which contributes greatly to the health of our coworking space!