Excess of Confidence: A Sin !

A month ago, I was calling to replace my boss in a speech, topics were more than known for me and audience was usual to attend in my opinion; I had more than one week to prepare the speech, it sound easy? sure easy....,by the way when people ask me how to speak in public I always answer that you should prepare 3 times the time you will invest in your speech. Additionally, you should use images to support but not read it, never pass one slide without a comment and finally yes you may improvise but having prepare more than well the words you will use.

The day came when I replaced my boss, I prepared the slides but my confidence excess made me feel terrible: I spoke in 5 minutes about 7 slides! my voice was broken several times and finally my body felt huge stress. My first reaction was to finish that drama in the minimum possible time, but after it the worse come to my mind and soul; what happened? why did I do bad? After couple of minutes to search on my mind… I found several facts that showed me an excess of confidence: the first was that I thought: well I know about the topic, second, I had presented these slides previously and finally I can improvise (without practice) ...the sum of these assumptions made me fail, but more than it I forgot my own advices.

Sometimes life give you Second chances, I use to say that you can make mistakes but do not repeat it , after 3 weeks I had opportunity of a similar experiences and guess what, I prepared myself as I usually do and I felt that I did well.

What I learn and like to share with you is that it does not matter if you are an expert or the best in a topic, you need to have the discipline to practice and follow up the routines that made you success, confidence is welcome but not as excess.