How does this apply to life… all this brain stuff

What it boils down to is this, what’s your perspective? What lens are you focusing with? And if you only have 1 lens to focus through, at what level did you set your focus?

Plain English please: Thank you.

A known unknown like speaking on a stage for graduation can be framed in the right context and the nervousness can be seen as a good thing or a bad thing.

How one frames the situation will greatly influences the experience of the situation. Both views uses the same mechanism of dumping adrenaline into the body. However, one leaves you so weak at the knees you want to run away, the other leaves you filled with anticipation that you’d like the chance to fight through the feelings and enjoy the speech one has prepared.

Framing

When the context calls for a speech, the not so pleasant framework to have is one of defeat. No, that’s not the technical term for it. But the Defeat model is built more on fear concepts.

I’m going to mess up and they’ll laugh at me

I’m going to choke and not know what to say

I’m going to look horrible and no one will like me

That ramps up anxiety, fear, and stokes panic. This framework will quickly have you running away from the problem. No one wants to look like a fool. No one wants to fall prey to humiliation. The Flight mechanism of the option is triggered and you quickly work to avoid the stage altogether.

The other frame of use is the Opportunity framework. Not the technical term for it, but works just fine.

This is a chance to improve my skills

I’ve been practicing, I finally will get a chance to showcase what I’ve learned

This is a chance for me to get valuable feedback to get even better at speaking in public

I’ve been waiting for this day a long time, I’m ready, let’s do this

That ramps up feelings of confidence, of adventure, anticipation, desire to do amazing work! Of course, overdoing it can lead to overconfidence, however, that’s another blog post in and of itself.

Mindset shift

Having the right frame of mind for the occasion allows a person to rally the right resources for the task at hand. In the setting of fear, one looks for ways to escape. In the setting of opportunity, one looks for ways to ensure success is reached.