The biggest mistake I ever made

I practiced day in and day out. Saying my parts of the presentation in the mirror over and over for the last three days didn’t matter now. I could feel my hands shaking around my cue cards and there was nothing that I could do about it. I told myself to breathe. Then I made a weird noise in between my sentences. My lines jumbled out of my mouth in a weird order. I took a moment to look at the PowerPoint screen behind me. I don’t think that I was supposed to do that. Hopefully I didn’t look for very long but I’m not sure what happened. “And now my partner will discuss the next few slides”. I’m done. I hated that.

Behold, the great mistake I ever made wasn’t turning around to look at the slides momentarily. The biggest mistake I ever made was caring about what other people think. It can be easy to become victim to our insecurities. However, letting insecurities take over and manipulate your choices only holds you back.

Public speaking remains the number one phobia. There are sharks, lions and bears in the world. I think that pin pointing exactly what makes public speaking so challenging is what will help us conquer our fear. It is our insecurities and not the act of public speaking itself that is challenging.

Then I realized that people do not actually care about what I am doing as much as I thought. Mind blowing. I can’t say that I have overcome my insecurities and now public speaking is a walk in the park…. but it gets easier every time I practice.

–@nlatter

“Yea, but…” will kill your dreams

I heard that a man will respond to a job posting he is interested in if he meets just 50% of the criteria/ qualifications. A woman will respond to the same job posting only if she meets at least 80% of the criteria/ qualifications. This is a huge problem, for me, for feminism, for everyone.

Why would you want a job that you are qualified for?

You can only learn and grow if you are in a position that is outside of your qualifications. Also, keep in mind that once you are done learning and growing again it is probably time to find a new challenge. Yes, challenging jobs can be intimidating but the best experiences that I have ever had were ones when I did not feel completely ready at the beginning.

A good friend of mine once told me to “go get some fucking confidence”. I took it as a compliment as this is probably the most constructive feedback I have ever gotten. Harsh, yet entirely justified. I remind myself of this often when I am feeling insecure or doubtful and it gives me the extra little push I need to keep pushing my limits and stepping outside the wonderfully safe bubble of my comfort zone.

The only thing holding you back is you.