Happy Sunday Everyone:
I’m just getting back from Texas where I had the opportunity to speak in front of a large audience. Two stories to tell.
Upon arriving at 12:30AM Wednesday night, the guy at the front desk asks for my ID. I hand it over, he looks up at me, looks down, looks back up, and says “I’ve been waiting for you all day”. I’m thinking well that’s a bit strange but okay. He then says, “sir, you’ll be staying in the presidential suite”. He then looks over at another guy standing 15 feet away and says “hey, this is the guy”. Now I’m thinking….HMMM….this must be because of my speaking deal on Friday and yes, truth be told, I’m thinking a bit like I’m a big deal….The other guy walks over and puts on sunglasses…..says “I’ll be walking you to room tonight just to make sure no one bothers you on the way up (I SWEAR THIS TO BE TRUE). I finally ask him two things…first off, “are you messing with me”….answer is no. Second question is “Is this all because of me speaking on Friday ?” I’m thinking maybe our team upgraded some of us that are speaking at the event…then he drops it on me…”sir, I’m not sure what you’re talking about on Friday, you’re Hyatt’s guest of the day”. Turns out a couple times a year they just give away the presidential suite to a random guest, and it happened to be me. I checked my ego at the door (literally) but did enjoy a two story suite for 3 nights….bedroom on the 28th floor, living areas, 27th, it was awesome.
The whole event went amazing and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was pleased with my personal performance. I can honestly say it’s the best I’ve ever done on a stage. I was flying back yesterday thinking about it all, it crossed my mind to think about how much actual time I had worked on my speech. What I can gander is I probably had 3-4 hours of quality work put into the presentation. Talking points, tactics, my story, bulleting down the flow of what I was going to say, that’s where the quality work was. The 3-4 hours of quality work was dwarfed by the countless hours of mental anguish for rehearsing how I was going to screw up. Questioning everything I was going to talk about, imagining blanking on stage, questioning if I really had the right to be up there….what’s going to happen when I bomb, the other speakers are going to be so much better, etc….It’s insane what my head can do to me. Perhaps I’m alone, although my guess is I’m not.
Public speaking isn’t for everyone and I know the more you do it the less nervous you get but this isn’t really my point. My point to myself, is to remember that “most” of the time, when you put in a solid effort, you will receive a positive outcome, and therefore shouldn’t waste precious time imagining why it won’t work. I honestly put less time into my day job and my family for a couple of weeks heading into this imagining the possible fail instead of the probable win. Imagining the possible fail just creates negative energy, which creates anxiety, which creates sleepless nights, which creates less brain power…it’s a vicious, stupid, self-inflicted circle. The great news is I do believe I’m finally over it. I know I’ll have more opportunities to speak like I just did on Friday and I believe I will have way less anxiety going into the next one. As my Grammie says “Trust that all is working out for the best”…..such a waste of time to assume anything else.
Have a great rest of your Sunday!