Content
Self-Belief Hey fellow stutterers, I just wanted to take the time to share one of the biggest accomplishment of my life I had this week. Perhaps this can help some of you in finding hope that things can get better and we can do things that we never thought we could do (at least for me). Quick background, growing up I had a moderate to severe stutter (depending on the situation and people I was with). I saw a speech therapist in my teenage years which helped but I still struggled through my twenties. In my thirties, when my career was in full flow, I came into my own, developed self-confidence in the workplace which helped to improve fluency (I now have a mild to moderate stutter on bad days) and I am now in charge of a small team of 3 people (I'm glancing over this part but trust me, there were a lot of ups and downs!). As a leader of a small team, I regularly have to speak to the team but public speaking had always remained the elephant in the room. I dread it like the plague. Fast forward to last month, my team was put in charge of organizing an event for 150-200 people, including all of senior management of my organization. That same day, my boss called me into her office and requested that I be the MC for the event. My heart sank immediately (as I imagine most of us would). I started to sweat because of the absolute monster that had just been unleashed upon me. I will spare you the details of the exchange but I couldn't say no. I had no choice but to take this challenge head-on so I approached it by saying to myself ”just imagine how proud you will feel if you succeed”. On top of being professionally responsible for the execution of the event with my team, I was tasked with entertaining a crowd for a full day which I had never done. Monumental task. What did I do? I decided to draft a monologue down to the comma for the full day, as if it were a school play. I knew that to be confident and to put the chances in my corner, I had to know what word to say from beginning to end. I rehearsed, visualized, and rehearsed again. I recorded myself to know where I was stumbling so I could anticipate it and correct it. I did that for almost 2 weeks straight. Some may find it extreme but for me, it was the only way I knew to build my confidence up before speaking in public. In short, I f\*\*n nailed it. I remained calm, I stuck to the script, I was clearspoken throughout the day and I almost never stumbled. The President and VPs congratulated me after and complimented my MCing skills. A colleague of mine whose son has a stammer came up to me after and was in awe of what I had just accomplished, knowing what its like to stammer. Thats it, sorry for the long post. I just wanted to share it with the world. I have never felt more proud in my life and I want to say that we may have been dealt this card, but we all have to power to overcome if we believe in ourselves. I left out many details but I’ll be happy to answer questions about my journey so I can help others. Happy holidays everyone! PG ​