Before a bull ride, the rider’s whole plan fits in one breath. Big risks need simple plans.

When the pressure is high, complicated plans fall apart, because there is no attention left over to run them. What survives is one or two instructions simple enough to hold while your heart is pounding. That is not a shortcut, it is how people who do frightening things operate reliably. A plan you cannot say in one breath is a plan you will not have when you need it.

Shrink the plan for your next nervous moment to a single sentence. Not a strategy, an instruction: start slow, speak up, keep your hands high. Say it to yourself walking in.