Can Shaky Hands Make Us Better? [BTS 4]

This is an awesome comment! Dude, thanks for taking the time to share this story. It's like finding a cheat code!

Brandon Moore

Dude, this story sounds so much like me! As we talked about a while back, I also was terrible at public speaking and was terrified of it because of some awful experiences I'd had in high school. I was shaky, too (one kid across the classroom even said, out loud, in the middle of one of my presentations, "Dude, you're shaking!" He could actually see me shaking from twenty feet away!) And I wrote out everything I wanted to say just like you, and rarely got decent scores on my oral presentations because I kept my head down in my notes, never looked up once, and just read everything in a monotone voice. I hated presenting. It was the bane of my educational existence. Later, I saw an interview a famous singer did where they talked about how they created an alter-ego for when they're performing because they used to always get terrible stage fright before and during their performances. This alter-ego was essentially a character whose personality traits they would mimic while onstage. This singer was an electrifying performer, and I was shocked to learn they ever dealt with stage fright. So I decided to try it myself when I had to do a group presentation in my archaeology class in college. I basically created a character who enjoyed being in front of people, who was at home there. He never got nervous. And in the moments before the presentation, I did my best to mimic his traits. I went up to the podium, shaking and my heart pounding like a jackhammer, with my groupmates and pages of notes (like you), focused on my character, took a deep breath, and for the first time in my life, I felt fine with a room full of forty people looking at me. It was unnerving. I adopted a natural, conversational tone like my character would, allowed myself to loosen up and move around a bit, and barely looked at my notes (my character didn't need notes. What did he need notes for when he was confident he knew the material backward and forward?). In a flash, my 5-minute section of the presentation was over. And when I went to sit back down, I felt terrified again. What had I just done? I was sure I'd screwed up somehow, because I almost always did. And then the grades were posted a few days later. My group got the top grade in the class. And my individual presentation score was the second-highest in the class. To say I was shocked is an understatement. I learned so much from that experience--that the ability to give a great presentation lived within me all along, and that I didn't need to worry. Now, whenever I'm nervous about anything at all, I think back to that moment and tell myself that I've got this, because I've done it before. It all probably sounds a little crazy, but man...it feels SO good. Haha, sorry for the insanely long post!

And that's exactly it. There is so much power in that mindset. Even if your pants fell down in the middle it really doesn't matter in the long run. It becomes a big deal if you make it a big deal.

Wonder what the girl that refused to speak is doing now? haha. I would have stroked all the way up to the presentation then sucked it up and made it happen. I remind myself a week or month from now or even an hour who's going to remember or care if I made a fool of myself.