How Do You Get Yourself Unstuck?

A few years ago, I utterly blew a Zoom presentation.

​On the third sentence I forgot what to say. I spent long painful moments shuffling my script. My voice lapsed into a monotone and stayed there the whole 20 minutes. I kept looking at the webcam, per expert advice, and got further disoriented.

​Right afterward, I knew exactly what had happened. The presentation took place on the day of a time-zone change, and time-zone changes unhinge me. Because of said change, I didn’t realize the presentation time was also my body’s lunchtime, so I launched into the speech ravenous. Oh, and I’d had zero experience formally presenting on Zoom.

Great lessons, right? Clearly the next step was to absorb them and move on.

Oh no. Instead I spent two years thinking I am a bad speaker, and I will never present in public again.

In other words, I got myself stuck.

Now I knew this wasn’t true. I’d presented enough to have complete confidence that my public speaking ability is absolutely…OK. Not Barack Obama, not Billy Graham, but not bad. All that evidence should have nipped stuckness in the bud. But it didn’t.

Has this ever happened to you? Ever get stuck in a view of yourself that isn’t accurate, and it holds you back?

I don’t have a nice three-point presentation on How to Get Unstuck. In my case, a dream highlighted my stuckness in rather vivid detail. I journaled about the dream, the lessons I’d learned from that invaluable experience two years ago, and the view of myself I need to take forward: i.e., my OKness in in-the-flesh formats (jury’s still out on Zoom).

Of course, your mileage to getting unstuck may vary. But I’d love to hear your experience if you’re willing to share. How have you gotten stuck, and how did you get out? Feel free to email me, respond in the Comments section, or share it on Facebook.