Tuesday 23 November 2010

Go for it!

I seem to have embarked on a new career as a speaker. Wot? Moi! No sooner have I finishing giving a talk I've to start preparing another. At each talk there is usually one person in the audience who asks me afterwards if I will do a talk at their organisation. I must be doing something right. Great! I'm not saying this to brag. It's just that I've had so much trouble with shyness in the past that I can't help feeling flushed with pleasure each time I manage to come over as a competent and confident speaker.

It makes me wonder how many other things I've been held back from attempting in the past with thinking 'I can't do it. I'm simply not the kind of person who can do...' I suppose that's not a bad thing if it's informed by a heavy dose of realistic self-awareness. I mean, if I'd had the confidence to get up onto a stage and sing, it doesn't mean I should have done that. I really can't sing a note in tune. X-factor here I come - I think not! But, singing apart, perhaps there's a lot of things that maybe, just maybe, I could have done. If only I'd realised that years ago!

4 comments:

Miriam said...

That's a familiar feeling!
I'm glad you're pushing the boundaries now.

Lorna F said...

Brilliant, Jean! Well done! As a child I was crippling shy and if anybody'd said to me then that I'd not only do lots of public speaking but really enjoy it, I'd have fallen over with shock. So true, that we don't know what we can achieve until we try.

Karen said...

Maybe there's hope for me yet, as I'm convinced I'd be terrible at speaking in public!

It really is good to push the boundaries sometimes, but I think I would draw the line at singing too :o)

Jean said...

Miriam - Yes, pushing the boundaries is a great feeling.

Lorna - Yes, it gets really exciting to realise we don't know just what we can achieve until we try.

Karen - Public speaking is the last thing I'd have expected to be able to do. Or on second thoughts I'd better leave singing as the last thing.