Editor’s Note: This story is part of Peak, The Athletic’s desk covering leadership, personal development and performance through the lens of sports. Follow Peak here.Steven Kwan is a two-time All-Star, a three-time Gold Glove winner and the leadoff hitter for the Cleveland Guardians.CLEVELAND — I get nervous. Every game. People who say they don’t get nervous are either lying, or they’re José Ramírez. I don’t know if José ever gets nervous.The national anthem is my last chance to center myself before first pitch. It’s a constant, a chance to maintain a routine. It’s something I can depend on and something I can control in a game in which there’s so much we cannot. So as I stand on the baseline, I start counting.Breathe in. One.Breathe out. Two.As I make my way to 10, it’s funny how many thoughts can flood your mind: What am I gonna do in my first at-bat? What’s the third-base umpire’s name? Do I have time to go to the bathroom?When you’re in the heat of the battle, staring down a pitcher who knows your weaknesses, your tendencies and your plan of attack, you’re probably going to have hundreds of things cross your mind. Those thoughts can take over. But they’re just thoughts, and if you can identify that in the moment, the thoughts don’t seem so terrifying or real.That breathing exercise during the anthem basically simulates what I’m going to experience at the plate when I lead off a game a few minutes later.As much as certain aspects of Major League Baseball have become desensitized now that I’m nearing the end of my fourth season, so much of it still seems surreal and, at times, overwhelming.Look no further than an at-bat I had on July 15 at the All-Star Game.I had been dealing with a sore wrist since late May, when it sort of folded underneath my arm on an awkward slide into second base. I spoke with Aaron Boone, the manager of the American League team, and Stephen Vogt, my manager in Cleveland and a member of Boone’s American League coaching staff, about what I was feeling. The plan was for me to get one at-bat.We were trailing 6-0, and it seemed like it would all go according to plan. I’d get my one at-bat, head back to Cleveland and start preparing for the second half.The next thing I know, I’m stepping up to the plate with two outs in the ninth inning, the AL down by one and the tying run at third base.My heart was beating out of my chest.Steven Kwan felt familiar nerves when he came up to bat in a key moment this year at the MLB All-Star game. (Mary DeCicco / MLB Photos via Getty Images)It felt like my major-league debut in Kansas City in April 2022. That was a whirlwind. The lockout delayed spring training that year, and even though I had been invited to Guardians big-league camp, in my mind, I was going to be in the minors until at least August. At no point did I think I would make the Opening Day roster, and I certainly never imagined myself in Terry Francona’s starting lineup on a snowy afternoon at Kauffman Stadium. Francona initially made it seem like I was being cut when he called me to his office to deliver the news at the end of camp. That was a roller coaster of emotions.The night before my debut, I had dinner with my parents and then had no trouble falling asleep. But I woke up in the middle of the night with a coughing fit, and that’s when the gravity of everything hit me. That’s when I try to catch those big thoughts and not give them any more power.