The best strategy for tackling those moments of stress actually involves some preparation: Highly successful people get ahead of their unsteadiness with a key mindset shift, according to Lisa Feldman Barrett, a neuroscientist, author and psychology professor at Northeastern University. They don't see stress as something bad to be overcome, but instead as something natural that can be managed. Instead, she recommends doing exercises beforehand to practice doing what unnerves you, and to help train yourself to understand and handle the stress differently. "It's a shift from making the sensation go away to getting better at performing while I'm feeling the sensation," he said. Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It's newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.

---

Persons: Lisa Feldman Barrett, Barrett, Wharton, Adam Grant's, Ted, Grant, speck, ted Organizations: Northeastern University, CNBC