What’s in your way?

The oldest participant to attend one of my courses on public speaking was an 85-year-old farmer from Lancashire. I’ll call him Joe. He’d been awarded a lifetime achievement for his work, but it came with a speech. Now, as we saw with the farmers choir on hashtag#Britain’sGotTalent recently, farmers don’t get to talk to people much, let alone speak in public, and Joe found the idea of giving a speech really daunting. Public speaking anxiety doesn’t stop when you are 80!
But on the second day of the course, he had a massive insight which was an unforgettable moment for me…

In his rich Lancashire tones Joe said: “Do you know what John, I’m like a handbrake on my own life.”
He’d named something lots of people never see so clearly.
We get in our own way. Massively.

And the cost isn’t just the anxiety inside. It’s everything we manage, avoid, and engineer around it. The more pressure we put ourselves the more we get in our own way, espeically when we get anxious around public speaking. Next time you curse that emotional roadblock, just ask yourself, is it really you getting in your own way? Are you a handbrake on your own life?