Comfort Zone Issues

 

Welcome to another #Weekendcoffeeshare post which is hosted by Diana on her blog Part Time Monster. Follow the link to read other coffee share posts and find out how to join in yourself. 

 

……..If we were having coffee I would invite you to have a seat in my living room and apologise (again) for the mess. It’s been another busy, and at times stressful, week in our house what with my daughter being in the middle of exam week at school, my eldest son’s birthday and my youngest son being his normal energetic self.

But anyway, I have something specific on my mind that I’d like to chat with you about over our coffee this week. Let me start at the beginning; I am a big fan of Ted Talks. I have the Ted app installed on my iPad and I often listen to talks whilst I’m doing chores at home. They are so varied in nature; some entertain and make me laugh, some are very moving but whatever their content and nature, nearly all either educate or give pause for thought and that’s what I like about them.

The town that I live in hosts it’s own TEDx conferences and last year I was lucky enough to get a ticket to be in the audience. The theme for the conference was ‘Be The Cure’ and it was interpreted in diverse ways. I came away from the conference feeling so inspired and with a voice in my head that was ever so quietly saying “I’d like to give a TED talk”.

This week my local TEDx team issued an invitation to their pitch night for their 2016 conference for which the theme is “A Matter of Perspective: it’s all in the mind“. Now let’s suppose I was considering giving a TED talk, what would I talk about? I would love to give a talk about Autism, and, well, this 2016 theme is looking like some kind of sign to me that I should go for it. I mean, it’s a gift of a theme to me as it so easily links to the subject of Autism. As soon as I read the theme I started composing a talk in my head, straight away I knew almost exactly how I would construct my talk. It’s something I feel very passionate about.

Here comes the ‘but’….but the problem is though that I am a classic introvert and public speaking is something I avoid at all costs. I’m the kind of person who gets nervous and anxious when I have to present a book to my book club, a group of close female friends with whom I’ve been in said book club for around 15 years (you see the scale of my problem?!)  Just the thought of filling out an application form for the pitch night is enough to make my anxiety kick in.

I mentioned this whole thing to my husband who said “You should go for it, it would be good for you to step outside of your comfort zone.”  The trouble is that this feels to me not so much that I would be ‘stepping’ out of my comfort zone as I would be ‘hurtling’ myself human canon ball style out of my comfort zone. I don’t know if I could trust myself to stand on a stage and talk to a theatre full of people without fainting or something!  Oh and did I mention that I have zero experience of public speaking of any kind?

So that is what I’m working over and over in my head this weekend; should I apply or am I being ridiculous for even considering it?  And whilst I have your ear right now I would like to ask you what you think about my dilemma and if you have any advice to share with me?