Bite Size: How to Get Present When Pressure Spikes | Dr Michael Gervais
From Performance Intelligence by Andrew May
May 17, 2026 · 10 min
About this episode
Dr Michael Gervais shares his experience with pressure and the importance of presence as a trainable skill.
Backstage. Heart hammering. Sweat beading. Every mental tool in the toolkit, breathing, self-talk, all of it, failed Dr Michael Gervais in real time. Michael is one of the world's leading performance psychologists and was moments away from presenting to the international body of sports psychologists. The researcher whose theory he was challenging was sitting in the front row. And he was falling apart. What pulled him back had nothing to do with technique. It was accidental. Mundane, even. And it became the foundation of a 27-year daily practice that he still runs today. Presence is not a personality trait. It is not something you either have or you don't. It is a trainable skill, and most of us have never once trained it deliberately. This conversation will change how you think about pressure, performance, and what it actually means to show up when the moment counts. You can find Dr Michael at his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmichaelgervais/ Listen to the Finding Mastery Podcast: https://findingmastery.com/ You can find JC at his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-clarke-1152a065/?originalSubdomain=au Use Code "PQPODCAST10" to get 10% off your Lumo Coffee…
People in this episode
Host: Andrew May
Guest: Dr Michael Gervais
Topics covered
- performance psychology
- pressure management
- mindfulness
- self-improvement
- daily practice
Keywords
- performance
- psychology
- pressure
- mindfulness
- self-talk
- breathing techniques
- daily practice
Sponsors
Lumo Coffee
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Finding Mastery Podcast, Performance Intelligence
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