Lori Harder explains how shifting from self-focused goals to serving others reduces performance anxiety. She uses meditation and prayer before going on stage to redirect her attention outward, and says this external focus beats trying to calm yourself down.
We'll do more for other people, we'll have to do for ourselves for sure. I wake up every day. Not for me. So when people go like, where do you get all the energy? Oh, it ain't for me. I know why I'm here. It's like when people get nervous going on stage, I understand where the nerves come from. I think nerves are actually a beautiful thing because it shows that you care. But what I do, that helps me shift it. Before backstage, I literally meditate and I pray and I say, God, please use me to serve the people. That's it. Please use me to serve the people. And all of a sudden, the nerves just go away because I'm like, oh, I'm here to pour into people that are a few step behind me that want to get some results. So anybody that's struggling with a goal or trying to get out of funk, you got to flip the inward focus to the external.
