In the past few months, I’ve given as many as seven presentations a week. Between rehearsal and the actual virtual presentations, I’m getting a lot of practice. But still, I don’t feel like I knock every performance out of the park. Every once in a while, I give a talk that feels a little bit off.
Sometimes the technology doesn’t do what it is supposed to do. Sometimes there’s a hurried start. Sometimes I can’t put my finger on what has me feeling off-balance. Oddly, what feels like a rocky presentation to me, seems like a normal presentation to the audience. I’ve tracked it, and ratings for my on-day presentations and the odd off-day presentations are the same.
I was talking about this to a wise colleague recently, and she said, “sometimes how you feel is not how it is.” Just because I feel like I’m having an off-day doesn’t mean I am displaying off-day reactions.
How you feel is not necessarily how it is – is worth thinking about while making many business decisions. Here’s another one for you. Just because I feel afraid, it doesn’t mean that the project ahead of me is bad.
Because we are changing rapidly in response to our environment, many new things are being thrown at us. This is bound to bring up some emotions. Anger, loss, frustration, anxiety, and worry might try to convince us that we are on the wrong track even when we are on the right one.
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