I will admit that I felt so powerless throughout my life that I
developed a stutter. This resulted in a really bad case of social
anxiety and I couldn’t talk to save my life.
The brief moments that I would open my mouth, I would limit myself to
sentences that only required a couple of words. There was no way I was
going to try and talk more than that.
I started going to the gym at age 14 and after 7 years of
perseverance I finally felt like I had control over my body. Control
over my body meant control over my life. This realization was crucial to
also overcoming my stutter.
I really hope that any of these lessons can help those who have any sort of anxiety.
This is what I learned.
Lesson 1 – Have Faith
The reason why I stuttered was because I kept envisioning in my head
all the possible scenarios that could go wrong. I kept picturing every
single word that I was going to stutter on.
This is the worst thing that you can do. I was digging my own grave.
If I believe that I’m going to stutter, then I will stutter.
You have to believe that you are going speak fluently. You have to
believe in your heart that you can talk. It will take a whole lot
stumbling before you succeed but you must have faith that you can talk
fluently.
Lesson 2 – Become Present
I was everywhere in my head except in this present moment. I would
constantly be thinking two sentences ahead of me to assess if there were
any words or phrases that were going to make me stutter.
I was constantly in my head wondering if people were going to notice
my stutter. My mind was running at 100 miles per hour while I tried to
talk. This is terrible.
Ask yourself what’s happening right now that you have to respond to.
What words am I expressing right NOW. All that matters is what’s
happening right now.
This is key to reducing your anxiety.
Lesson 3 – Go For It
Lessons 1 & 2 are easy. Now comes the hard part. You must believe
that everything will turn out for the best and simply go for it.
Don’t get me wrong. I still have to remind myself to simply go for
it. I simply start talking and I worry about correcting course along the
way. Do I ever stutter?
Yes I sometimes do but EVERYONE stumbles upon words every now and then. EVERYONE. It’s called a mistake. Keep going.
Lesson 4 – Forget The End Result
This one is huge and this one is related to being present. Forget
about the end result. Who cares what happens. We are all going to die
one day so why worry about every little bad thing that can happen.
Don’t try to plan a perfect scenario. Rarely do things happen the way
they were intended to happen. Have a vision of where you want to go but
be open to the constant changes that will occur along the way.
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