Regardless of your line of work or profession, you’ll likely be in some kind of high-pressure situation at one point or another in your career. For some people, the more that’s on the line, the better they perform. But for others, stress, fear and anxiety can cause them to freeze. Since freezing in a high-pressure situation isn’t something you or your boss want, it’s important to know what type of situations you feel the most pressure in and how to overcome that. To help you out, here are three ways you can increase your ability to handle high-pressure situations.

Regulate Your Emotions

One of the biggest reasons people lose their cool in high-pressure situations is due to their emotions. If you’re feeling scared, anxious, unsure or nervous, it’s usually going to be very obvious to those around you. To combat this, Harrison Monarth, a contributor to Entrepreneur.com, suggests some tactics to help regulate your emotions in stressful situations. Some of the strategies he brings up involve postponing until you have time to calm down, modifying the situation to make yourself more comfortable, and redirecting your focus to something less intimidating. All of these ideas will help you regulate your emotions and regain your composure in high-pressure situations.

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare

A lot of what makes certain situations stressful or filled with internal and external pressure is the buildup to the event. The anticipation that something will be hard, embarrassing or awkward can make it difficult to handle that situation. Therefore, Jeff Haden, a contributor to Inc.com, recommends preparing for the event as much as possible beforehand. This could include practicing what you’ll say or do, how you plan to react to various scenarios, and visualizing how the event will unfold. While you can’t prepare for everything, simply accepting that things may not go according to plan will help you when you’re in the thick of it.

Try To Take Things As They Come

Regardless of how much you prepare or how confident you feel going into a high-pressure situation, things can always go off script. When this happens, Molly Thompson, a contributor to Chron.com, advises to merely take things as they come. Try to be as flexible as possible and roll with the punches that are thrown at you. By deciding beforehand that you won’t dwell on missteps or mistakes, you’ll be much more likely to proceed with focus and control for the rest of the situation in which you’re in.

High-pressure, stressful situations are at times going to be unavoidable both in your personal and professional life. While you may dread their coming, there are things you can do to make their arrival less daunting. Use the tips mentioned above to help you get through these events with flying colors.