How Your Mindset About Stress Can Improve Your Gaming Performance

Stress Doesn’t Have to Be Your Enemy

Stress often gets a bad reputation. Most people view stress as something harmful, something that reduces their performance and makes them feel worse. But recent research shows a different side of stress—one that can boost your performance when it matters most.

Your mindset about stress determines how stress affects your body and mind, and it might even predict how well you perform in challenging situations.

What is a Mindset?

Your mindset shapes your daily experience far more than you might realize. It’s the collection of deep-rooted beliefs that influence how you interpret and respond to different situations. It’s like a mental filter or lens that colors how you see yourself and the world around you.

Dr. Alia Crum, a psychologist from Stanford’s Mind & Body Lab, defines mindsets as:

For example, your mindset around practice influences whether you view training sessions as boring and repetitive or as engaging opportunities to improve your skills. Similarly, your mindset about competitive matches can determine whether you associate them with anxiety and pressure or excitement and growth.

Mindsets are powerful because they don’t just influence your emotional reactions; they can also affect your body’s physical responses to challenging situations. Your mindset can determine whether stress helps sharpen your reaction time and focus or instead makes you feel overwhelmed and less capable of performing at your best.

When it comes to stress specifically, people typically hold one of two mindsets:

Stress-is-weakening: Believing stress hurts your performance, health, and well-being.

Stress-is-enhancing: Believing stress can improve your performance and sharpen your abilities under pressure.

What Navy SEALs Can Teach Us About Stress and Performance

Dr. Alia Crum and her colleagues conducted a study exploring the impact of stress mindsets on performance and success among Navy SEAL candidates—individuals who experience some of the most intense physical and mental challenges imaginable.

In this study, 174 Navy SEAL candidates were followed closely during their demanding training program. The researchers specifically wanted to find out whether candidates’ beliefs about stress influenced their ability to handle and overcome high-pressure situations.

Here’s what Dr. Crum and her team discovered:

Navy SEAL candidates who believed stress could be beneficial—embracing a stress-is-enhancing mindset—demonstrated objectively better performance under pressure. They persisted longer through intense training, completed difficult tasks more efficiently, and received fewer negative evaluations from both peers and instructors.

On the other hand, Navy Seals with a stress-is-weakening mindset struggled more, performed worse overall, and were more likely to receive negative feedback.

This study highlights just how powerful your mindset can be when facing stress and reinforces the significant advantages of adopting a stress-is-enhancing mindset in high-pressure situations.

What You as a Gamer Can Learn From This

While gaming isn’t as physically demanding as Navy SEAL training, it can still be a mental challenge, especially in high-stakes situations like competitive tournaments, ranked matches, or clutch moments. Just as the mindset of a Navy SEAL’ can influence their success under extreme conditions, your mindset as a gamer can significantly impact your performance when it matters most.

When you adopt a stress-is-enhancing mindset you can experience clear performance benefits:

✅ Your reaction time improves, and you’ll find it easier to make quick, accurate decisions.

✅ You can maintain your focus under pressure, helping you stay accurate and avoid stupid mistakes.

✅ You’ll be able to persist longer through tough gaming sessions, maintaining high-level performance even when things get difficult.

✅ You increase your chances of entering a flow state—a zone of complete focus and peak performance.

On the other hand, if you view stress negatively, you might experience more anxiety, lower self-confidence, and difficulty reaching a flow state—all of which can hold you back from performing your best.

Practical Tips to Make Stress Work for You

Adopting a stress-is-enhancing mindset doesn’t have to be difficult or abstract—you can actively practice and develop it in your everyday gaming. Here are some practical strategies you can start using right now to turn stress into a helpful ally and consistently perform at your best:

Use stress signals as positive cues

When you feel your heartbeat speeding up, palms sweating, or butterflies in your stomach, remind yourself these sensations mean your body is gearing up for better performance. It’s your nervous system telling you: “I’m ready.”

Welcome the adrenaline rush

Instead of resisting or worrying about the physical sensations of stress, embrace them as signals your body and mind are prepared to handle the upcoming challenge. By accepting this natural response, you make it easier to enter a flow state, where you feel more confident and in control.

Reframe your stress response

Rather than thinking, “I’m nervous,” tell yourself, “My body is helping me perform at my absolute best.” This subtle mental shift helps you feel calmer, more confident, and ready to excel.

Mentally rehearse your success

Take a moment before your game to visualize yourself confidently and effectively navigating stressful gaming scenarios. This visualization reinforces your belief that you can successfully manage pressure and handle challenges smoothly.

Wrapping Up

Your mindset about stress is more than just positive thinking—it’s a scientifically validated way to improve your gaming performance. By shifting the way you interpret stress, you turn what once felt like anxiety into a performance-boosting resource.

Every time you notice your heart racing or your hands getting sweaty, remember that’s your body signaling it’s ready to perform at a higher level. Every elite performer has learned to harness this natural response rather than fight against it.

So next time you step into a challenging match, trust your body, embrace the stress, and game on.