Husband, father, writer and. I love blogging about family, humanity, health and writing
When I joined my college comedy troupe during my freshman year at UPenn, I wasn't the only new member of the group. Another man named Pete came on board with me.
By gaozhen2 years ago in Humans
You are a kind man. A caring person. A sympathetic person. To other people. But you hold yourself to a higher standard. When you make mistakes, you're hard on yourself. Judge for yourself. You tell yourself you need to do better.
I grew up in the 1970s and learned a lot from that experience. Tom Wolfe called the 60s and 70s the "Purple Decade" because they were so flamboyant.
I relied heavily on my family and confided in a few close friends with whom I was happy to share my outburst of insanity. My 4-year-old niece reaffirmed my need to do this, and amid my sobs, she gave me a hug and said simply, "It's okay. We are your family and we will always take care of you."
I've been asking for change, but looking at everything with the same perspective and mentality, these are the things I didn't want in the first place.
Three years ago, I quit my job as a brand manager to become a freelance writer. I spent half my first year traveling. For the next two years, I eked out a living on the meager income I earned from my fledgling freelance writing business, supplemented by savings. It was a struggle and things didn't take off as I would have liked. The money has finally run out for the year.
Not everyone is familiar with the term highly sensitive person (HSP), but you probably know someone who fits the definition. To summarize, we can say that HSPS experience life on a larger scale than the average person - both the highs and the lows.
In just four decades of experience on our wonderful planet, I have come to realize many important (but not so important) things. For example, I never really got great satisfaction from doing housework or spending days at home.
I've been imagining this day for weeks, adjusting to the ever-changing dates, trying to avoid the heavy feeling of despair I feel when I think of the long months ahead of us.
My latest obsession is public speaking. I don't know what hit me, but I found myself making excuses to speak in front of people. Like photographing people, I started because I was afraid of it, and I just overcame that fear by doing it (repeatedly) until I fell in love with the act and couldn't stop. Public speaking is similar. I've extracted some useful tips from "Podium Strategies for 28 Public Speaking Experts." These are general tips from the speaker. I'll cover specific techniques in a later blog post.
Everyone wants to be heard. When we listen to others, we recognize that they need to be acknowledged and understood. Deep down, we all want to know that we matter, that we matter. Don't you think that when we meet someone who shows interest in what we have to say, we tend to like them immediately?
I've heard all the standard public speaking techniques, such as making eye contact with the audience, planning a speech, practicing, speaking loudly and standing up straight. While they are valuable techniques, none of them address the real problem behind my presentation. Namely, my fear of failure and the extreme nervousness I experience when standing in front of a crowd.