Wow. It's been a day.
I spent the day in a training class...Making Effective Presentations. Whoopee.
The class was interesting, but I'm afeared I didn't get the critical question answered:
How do I present something with confidence that I don't possess?
I usually possess great knowledge about the topic at hand. I can talk passionately and with conviction about web usability testing, net promoter scores, and how you have to put a R in the rerate indicator and change the rating base by a dollar.
As long as you're not looking at me when I do it.
Wait, let me pause here. I have no problem giving presentations to total strangers...I have no history with them. However, 5/8th of my class today were people I work with, and 3/5 of those are people I used to or currently report to...people who get paid for and are charged with constantly judging me. Presenting in front of those people scares the bejeezis out of me.
Let me pause again to say that I did avenge my humiliation by, during one of my presentations, teaching the people in the room, yes, even the Spartans and Irish fans, the proper hand gestures to use whilst singing "The Victors". And I made them Hail! with all of their fingers.
Worse than making 5-second eye contact, faking enthusiasm, and standing with my arms at my side, talking slowly and not too loud to 20 beady, staring-back eyes, was the fact that we were videotaped. Then, as though that wasn't ulcer-inducing enough, we had to WATCH IT in front of everyone, and listen while they critiqued.
I wasn't sure if, after watching myself, I wanted to never eat again, or just go drown myself in a vat of New York Super Fudge Chunk. Laundry on Friday nights? I get it now.
The best part???? We get to do it AGAIN tomorrow!
I'm gonna need alcohol....
Oh, and the clean underwear? Still not folded. Why does that take forever to get to? I've just been getting dressed in the laundry room. Hopefully no one sees me through the windows sneak down the stairs to get there.
Otherwise, they're gonna need alcohol...
I figure, why bring the underwear upstairs, stick it in a drawer, just to pull it out again to put it on! Also, it is fun to act like Jack Bower on 24, racing through the house, on all alert, looking out the windows to see if the neighbors are watching, then darting across the room to the next strategic location! Wakes me up in the morning with a little adrenaline rush! I have the added benefit of having the in-laws living in the basement....it's like an adrenaling high trying to run through the house without getting caught from the outside AND the inside....bet you wish you were me!!! :)
ReplyDeleteRenee Slagter