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Rebecca Holden's avatar

WOW to telling your story in person, TBD - I'm deeply, hugely impressed. Bravo! 🥳

I'm not a great talker - that's a big lie in one respect, because I'm a real chatterbox in conversation and very hard to shut up - what I mean is that I'd really struggle to stand up in public and deliver a talk. Although an opportunity hasn't presented itself since I started writing, I feel I'd be more comfortable reading my words out loud. One day, maybe.

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Holly Rabalais's avatar

This hit deep for me. I’m constantly having to remind myself to tune out the “shoulds” and “coulds” and “woulds” and just do me. Most of the time I succeed, but sometimes I find myself in the weeds and realize it’s because I’m trying too hard to please someone--usually not anyone specific, except maybe my inner critic.

Five years ago I was selected to read something I’d written for the Listen To Your Mother Show. I, who hate speaking in front of large groups of people, found that sweet spot of standing in front of a crowd and reading a piece I’d written about motherhood “Letting Go” if you want to search my archives). It was my authentic voice because I had written it, and that made me feel 100% comfortable reading it (and we had a rule that we *had* to read, not recite) to a couple hundred people.

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