Chapter 38 7.a Everything can be prepared in advance

When I was doing teacher training, I was often praised by new teachers, "Mr. Li, your ability to adapt to changes on stage is too strong!" At such times, I dare not be humble-because they are completely wrong, and I myself I am too aware of how poor my resilience is. I have to explain.The reason why it can "appear" to do a job with ease is because too much preparation has been made before.The reason why I have made so many preparations is because I have made a fool of myself before—Imagine how embarrassing it would be to suddenly find out on stage that a sentence I said had an ambiguity that I had never thought of.Therefore, when preparing any speech, I spend a lot of time seriously thinking about the understanding and reaction that each point of view, each example, and even each sentence may trigger, and then formulate corresponding countermeasures one by one, so that I can feel at ease Speech on stage.

Even, I have a serious "pre-class phobia"-many people don't believe it.Starting about five minutes before each class, various symptoms began to occur concurrently, itchy palms, scalp numbness, eyelid twitching (sometimes the left eye, sometimes the right eye, sometimes both eyes), and the back may start to sweat (Same in winter) . . . it usually takes about five minutes to get out of this state of terror until the lecture begins. -- It's been almost fifteen years since I first gave a speech, and there has never been a sign of improvement. It's just that I'm getting used to it.

I haven't been able to overcome my fear, but I've managed to get used to it.However, even the second-best habitual fear requires effort and struggle.The way to work hard is to do a lot of preparation before class.I even developed some symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder for this reason-the preparation content must be more than twice the actual lecture time, so that I can feel at ease.However, this fear has also become a driving force, because many of my lectures or speeches eventually have two or more, or even many versions.This kind of preparation makes me absolutely fearless once I get into the state.Knowing the result, you can let the fear accompany you at the beginning.

Again, it was my dad who helped me when he said, "Trust me, you're not alone".The reason I thought I could figure out how to deal with my fear of public speaking was because I knew a lot of people were afraid of public speaking.Someone once did a survey and asked people what they were most afraid of.What are you most afraid of?It should be death, illness, or loss of a loved one.But surprisingly, the thing people fear the most is public speaking.The survey report reads: “On average, people are more afraid of public speaking than they are afraid of death”17.Needless to say, there are reasons for fear of death. People are afraid of speaking in public, but they may not necessarily know the reason for fear—it’s very simple, lack of preparation, so fear.

I've had low self-esteem for quite a while because I felt I lacked "quick wit."Later, it was because of reading an autobiography of a former Soviet KGB agent that he changed his mind.I can't find that book now, and I don't remember the full name of the protagonist.I vaguely remember his real name as Nianke, so let's call him "Comrade Nianke". The book mentions that "Comrade Nenke" was hunted down by a group of American agents once, and the revolver in his hand had no bullets, so he had to run to get rid of his bad luck.In the process of escaping, he rushed down a long section of marble steps. Running, he suddenly stopped and made a movement that ordinary people could not imagine.He crouched down.At this time, the American agents chasing him could not shoot at his position because of the height and viewing angle.And the action of him squatting bought him a precious seven or eight seconds, during which time he was able to take the bullets from his pocket, load the revolver, and then fire a few shots in the back. The agents who chased him scrambled for cover to protect themselves, and he managed to escape.

"Comrade Nianke" later recalled that the reason why he was able to make such a "shocking" action at that time was actually because he had rehearsed it in his mind many times in advance and imagined how many ways to escape. What might happen at any time--he knew from the beginning that sooner or later he would encounter such a pursuit.He said that all senior agents understand a simple principle: any action can be performed a certain number of times, and it can be performed accurately even unconsciously.And he just applied this principle to the extreme. Therefore, most things need to be prepared in advance, and they can be prepared in advance.Recognizing this in itself is the starting point for almost all change.