Anyone can walk on a one-foot-wide path. But if it was a beam jutting out from a building’s 100th floor, you would collapse before taking even one step.
Why?
In some sense, the task is exactly the same. But our peripheral vision can see the steep fall awaiting us. So we can’t focus on the walk, making the fall a self-fulfilling prophecy.
We are not nervous because the task itself is that hard, but because our mind is scanning all the peripheral things that can go wrong.
How do you then override nervousness?
My go-to technique is exposure.
E.g., for my Civil Services interview, I did so many mock interviews with my friends that I was thoroughly desensitized. And for the actual interview, when I walked in, my nervousness vanished instantly.
To train your emotions, expose yourself repeatedly to whatever scares you. Once desensitized, your mind will stop caring and then, you can focus on the task at hand.
And once you can focus on what matters, you will never fall.
– Rajan