watching the women's figure skating short program and learning about kim yu-na in korea and how she's expected to win the gold, it's hard to fathom the country's hopes rested in one person.

i think i perform better under pressure. the reason being that without pressure i feel more lazy and lathargic, and have other distractions going on around me. but when it comes to emminent deadlines, i zone out everything else and just fly through my work

This works in athletics as well, if you can convince yourself that you are the worst player, you will play so much better than if you thought you were the best. Or in a team sport, if your team is convinced that the other team is significantly better, your team will perform very well. I think individually you do better if you psych yourself out and pretend the worlds on your shoulders.

When I was in Architecture, it was all about working under strict deadlines and pressure. Often times no sleep too. Having gone through that program it's conditioned me to be able to work under pressure.