Last week I was working with of my client’s to record an audio presentation over a teleconference. Audio presentations can be difficult because you don’t have an audience in front of you to help with timing, and without a crowd’s reactions you also can’t adjust your tone or content on the fly. It is what it is. He wound up speaking incredibly fast, and about a third of the way through it was apparent we were going to have to interrupt him. We hate to do that, but as good as we are, we can’t slow a person down in post-production.

Sure enough the speaker had no idea, and was glad we stopped him. He took a deep breath and carried on at a more moderate pace. But now he was incredibly conscious we were listening. He started to sound nervous and his spring was gone. He’d lost his mojo. What we hoped would make him better, was making him worse. He eventually righted himself, but it took time (and a few practice slides).

In a completely unrelated, not even close sort of way, that happened to me today. I was going along fine, completely unawares in life, and then got some feedback that caught me off guard. It probably shouldn’t have surprised me, but I just didn’t see it coming. My mojo carpet was pulled out from underneath me and now I’m raw with awareness. This feedback involved the feelings of people who I care a great deal about, and that makes the situation all the more fragile. I know this was meant to make me better, but I think that’s going to take awhile to right myself. Longer than a few practice slides anyway.