Last weekend I spoke at Craft + Commerce, a conference for creators in Boise, Idaho. I was nervous about the talk, there were about 400 people the audience and I wanted to do well. My watch even pinged me for an elevated heart rate shortly before I went on stage!
20 minutes later I was walking off the stage to applause and the talk had gone really well. I was so elated and relieved! This isn’t an email to congratulate myself though. What I want to share is how I was able to fight my weeks-long anxiety about the talk and how you can do the same in your own life. If you’re interested, see my slides here!
If you watched my June Plan with Me video you’ll know this talk has been heavy on my mind for several months. All of the aspects of the crowd, the quality of attendee, the venue, friends in the audience, desire to do well. They all combined for anxiety-inducing preparation.
The biggest thing to do in this situation is practice, and I don’t mean just a couple times. I rehearsed the full talk at least 20 times, and sections of the talk at least that many. In total I practiced a 20 minute talk for at least 10 hours (yay time tracking).
Even though I was still nervous (shown by my heart rate) – in the days leading up to the talk I tempered my anxiety and boosted my confidence by remembering and reviewing the many times I had practiced. I could feel confident because I knew I had put in the reps.
One other reason: exposure. I practiced the talk 3-4 times in front of people before going on stage. I worked with a speaker coach and went over the entire talk with him – his feedback and suggestions were invaluable. Each person I showed it to made helpful points and were very excited about the content.
Repeated practice and exposure were the key elements in reducing my anxiety over the talk. Note that I didn’t say remove, anxiety was still there all the way up on stage with me! But I continually had the other two weapons in my mental war chest to fight back and push myself forward.
This week, your task is to examine the areas in your life anxiety is holding you back. Carefully consider how practicing and exposing the source of the anxiety can help reduce it and in time remove completely.
Remember that at the beginning not to focus on the quality of the practice, simply that you’re doing it. My early talks were really bad and I did get frustrated! But the more practice you have the better everything will feel.
Quick disclaimer: I’m obviously not a doctor and anxiety can be a really tough thing to tackle. There’s nothing wrong with finding professional help and someone to talk to. Some of my biggest breakthroughs have come after speaking to counselors and therapists. If this resonates with you, please find the support you need 🙂
I hope this week we can all take small actions to start reducing anxiety and improving our lives this week. It sounds very high-minded but really can begin with practice and exposing the anxiety to light.
Talk to you soon,
Matt
ps – thank you to everyone who emailed and messaged me last week about the talk. It meant so much to me and I can’t wait to share it with you!