Even the most accomplished performers may struggle to do their best when their best is needed - under the greatest pressure. For example, footballers who were recipients of international soccer awards were more likely to miss penalty kicks in shootouts in the most important soccer matches. Perhaps the importance of success was greater for celebrated performers as more was expected for them - "everyone was depending on them and they couldn't fail their teams and even their countries in international matches."
Some develop such all-or-nothing or black-and-white thinking that they even consider success to be a matter of life or death! Consider the "Goldman dilemma." Starting in the 1970s and continuing into the 1990s, Gabe Mirkin and Bob Goldman polled elite athletes to determine if they would take a pill that ensured an Olympic or international gold medal but would result in their death within five years. They reported that over 50% agreed to this Faustian bargian. While these results have lacked replication and have been contradicted, there are certainly performers who consider themselves a failure without outsized success.
Ironically, humans may approach competition as if it is a matter of life-and-death and choke under pressure. In the wild, infrahuman species literally compete for survival while remaining entirely focused in the present moment. The URL below links to a video of a leopard hunting a baboon. Obviously, humans think differently from other species, as for example comparative psychologists maintain that infrahuman species are incapable of conscious thought. With conscious thought we are capable of an integrated schema of our selves. We recognize our past, conceptualize aspects of our personality, and develop expectations of ourselves in the future. Indeed, so much of our conscious awareness is devoted to ruminating about the past and worrying about the future that spiritual systems and areas of psychology (mindfulness) have developed to help us focus one-mindedly on the present moment and avoid destructive rumination and worry.
Are these differences between species responsible for what appears to be the task absorption - anthropormophism notwithstanding - of the leapord in the video? Do these differences explain her unwavering attention and one-mindedness under the pressure of survival for herself and her cub? Is it possible that she might be distracted by the thought that her cub's chances of survival deminish with every moment of separation?
Perhaps human conscious thought makes if difficult or impossible to pursue our goals in competition as one-mindedly as as leopard. She may represent an impossibly high standard. Nevertheless, and to the degree possible, be the leopard.
References: (Connor et al., 2013; Gallucci, 2014; González et al., 2018; Jordet, 2009a, 2009b; Masicampo et al., 2020).