Hey everyone, I know that right now, a lot of us are feeling like our worlds are upside down and our dreams are on pause, and our lives are on pause. I have 3 life lessons that I want to share with you today—that I’ve learned the hard way—that I think will help you get your dreams back on track.
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3 Lessons For Speaker Confidence
Hey everyone, I’m Fia Fasbinder, welcome to Moxie Talk where we help you find your voice, share your message, and lead with confidence.
I don’t often share stories in these blogs and today I really felt called to share some stories with you that are around these life lessons that I’ve learned that I really feel are necessary in these really difficult times.
Progress
Perfection
The first lesson that is so important to me is progress, not perfection. The story I want to share with you, when I first started Moxie 7 years ago, I was asked to do workshops. I was being paid to lead workshops and at that point, it was just me, so I would exist in this vacuum creating these workshops and creating the exercises. During then, I was so hesitant to put them out there but we had a date. I was going to lead this workshop on a certain date.
What I found when I would lead this workshop is that it wasn’t about being perfect—it was about putting it out there in the world and then seeing what worked, what didn’t work, what I wanted to change, what took up too much time, and what wasn’t resonating with the participants.
3 Times
I actually realized I got a hard and fast rule now, that you have to create something 3 times before it’s even close to perfect. Moreover, if you’re anything like me and you’re a creative person, by the fourth time you’re bored with it. But progress, not perfection, has become a mantra that I say to myself over and over and over so that I adopt this mentality of ship it!
Put it out there in the world! Do not wait for it to be perfect, do not let it sit on a shelf collecting dust, let it exist in the world even if it’s not perfect. I often say to myself, done is better than good. Let’s ship it.
Let it exist in the world even if it’s not perfect.
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The second mantra that I say over and over and over to myself is, “Walk towards fear.” I learned this lesson the hard way.
Walk towards fear
Some of you have probably heard me tell this story before that when I was in New York City, I was doing a production of the Scarlet Letter and I actually froze on stage—An actor’s worst nightmare—totally froze, totally forgot my lines, had to be actually carried off the stage by fellow actors.
It was so traumatizing to me that I stopped acting for several years. I actually fell into a depression because acting and performing and sharing my message is so integral to who I am as a human being.
Eventually, I mustered up the courage to start acting again and get on a stage again, and share my message with the world. I will tell you that every time I get up to give a keynote I am walking towards fear.
There is a part of me that is terrified that I might forget again, but what I’ve realized is: What’s worse than the possibility of forgetting my lines? What’s worse is living with the regret that I never got up on that stage again—that I never shared this message with the world. So I really urge people to walk towards fear.
Fear is in the moment. Regret lasts a lifetime.
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The final lesson that is so near and dear to my heart is
take the first step.
Martin Luther King has this great quote that I love — You don’t have to see the whole staircase just to take the first step. It’s so true! The hardest part of any creative process is that first step.
Anytime I am creating a keynote I tell you — I will like to delay it, procrastinate like, I overthink it, I over analyze it, I keep thinking – Is this right? What if they don’t like it? What if I have nothing to say?
Anxiety Action
and then when I finally write those first words, I swear it just starts to write itself – like action is the antidote for anxiety every time. Just taking that first step is so important to anything we want to do in life and any big goals we have. Just take that first step, and the rest just kind of falls into place.
Action beats anxiety. Every. Single. Time.
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I hope that these life lessons that I learned the hard way resonate with you. I hope they inspire you, I hope they help you get on track to fulfill your purpose on this planet because I truly believe that each and every one of you has moxie and I can’t wait to help you bring it to life.
Thanks for reading and we’ll see you on the next blog. Please share it with friends and subscribe to our newsletter and YouTube channel for more information on everything from soup to nuts presentations —it’s all there.
If you want more information about how Moxie can help you master fear and public speaking anxiety then check out our fear Of Public Speaking page or book a call!
