Reader

You rehearsed it 10 times.

You nailed it in the car on the way in.

Then an executive asks you one question you didn’t see coming..

and it’s all gone.

Here’s a strange way to look at it.

You tied your shoes this morning. No problem. Didn’t even think about it.

Now imagine doing it on a stage. 200 people watching. Your boss in the front row.

Your fingers suddenly don’t work right.

Did you forget how to tie your shoes?

Of course not. The skill was there 5 minutes ago.

Something about the situation changed.

Here’s what i think is happening:

your brain has decided that room is dangerous.

Not dangerous like a bear in the woods. No one’s going to throw a tomato at you.

Dangerous to something you care about just as much.. your reputation.

It runs a quick chain, usually without you noticing:

• IF i stumble on this answer..
• THEN they’ll think i don’t know my stuff..
• SO i’ll lose their respect.

To your brain, that’s a real threat.

So it does what it’s built to do. It sounds the alarm. Adrenaline. Cortisol. Heart racing.

And when your brain is busy handling a threat, everything you practiced feels out of reach.

That’s why more practice often doesn’t fix it.

Practice adds more skill.

But skill was never what went missing. The alarm is the problem. And practice doesn’t touch the alarm.

A senior engineer i worked with, knew his work inside out. In his words:

“I used to prepare 10 points but under pressure a 10 minute answer came out in 30 seconds.”

He didn’t need an 11th point.

He needed to find out what his brain thought was at stake.

So here’s something you can try this week:

Think of the last meeting where your mind went blank or you rushed through your answer.

Then finish the chain:

IF ______

THEN ______

SO ______

Once you can see the chain, you can start questioning it.

-waqas

PS--If you want to go deeper into why this happens in some rooms and not others, that’s what my free 5-day email course is about.