I met Natasha earlier this week. We’ve exchanged many tweets and I was excited about this opportunity to meet in real life. We had a flowing conversation and the time passed all too quickly, as it does when you’re in the flow. Natasha is a great listener. That’s a nice way of me saying I think I talked a bit too much.
One of the things I spoke about was nerves. I often get nervous when performing (in every sense of the word), particularly at the start of something. When I say nervous I mean sick to the bottom of my stomach locked up tight can barely talk or walk cold sweat fear of God. That kind of nervous. This is a shame because I enjoy what I do very much and I know if I could channel these nerves more effectively I could enjoy myself even more and give something much better to people.
Natasha suggested I try a slight shift in my thinking. Could I maybe convert nervous into excited? I’ll try anything and this sounds like a good idea thanks very much Natasha, let’s see when I can apply it.
Tomorrow I’ll be joining up with some of the biggest and best names in and around the world of social recruitment. I’ll be meeting some familiar faces and some new ones too. I’m confident that I will learn useful stuff and have a really good time, and make a useful contribution to the day. I’m nervous about excited by the possibilities.
On Friday evening I’ll be in the New Forest standing on stage performing to a group of friends and acquaintances. It’s our annual summer camp and therefore my annual big night out. I’ve been doing this for several years now and the organisers are always kind enough to invite me back. It’s high time I repaid myself and the audience for their faith in me. I am nervous about excited by the possibilities.
How will I get on? I am excited about checking in with you again next week to let you know.
It’s a tricky balance.
Not nervous tends to mean I am not prepared. Time speeds up when I am nervous, my deadline is therefore frighteningly near.
Not excited tends to mean I don’t perform. Time slows down when I am excited, I have longer to react to catch the ball or in your case to remember the words ?
It’s a bit extreme but to move from one to other I try to remember that no one is going to die and smile and nod a lot at anyone else who I suspect think that they might be about to!
I did stop saying “no ones gonna die” out loud on the way into important meetings after a while though. It was considered odd 🙂
It is a tricky balance. I sang a song at the social recruiting conference yesterday. I wrote the song through the day and threaded a little story together to include all the speakers. It was going to be read as a poem but at the last minute I fiddled with it to make it fit the tune I used at the last connectinghr unconference. I managed to focus more on excited and less on nerves. The song went down well and afterwards I was shaking like a leaf. So I at least managed to postpone some of the nerves. I don’t want to sound smug but I think trying to write and play something you’ve never heard yourself before is (for me at least) quite a bold move.
We’ll see how I go tonight…
Your final point is excellent stuff, repeat after Anthony – “no one’s gonna die”.
Love it – thanks!