When the THING isn't THE thing

Have you ever done a thing and you thought the THING was THE thing and then you did it and something else was the ACTUAL thing?

That was me with my TEDx talk last month.

The whole day leading up to it I was SO nervous.

Like… “Wait... why are you so nervous?” nervous.

“You do this for a living, what is actually wrong with you?” nervous.

And if that’s how a professional speaker felt, just IMAGINE how it was for everyone else.

And yet…

When the first speaker stepped onto that red dot and the rest of us were backstage, one of the other speakers turned to us and said, “Guys, she needs us. She is so nervous right now.”

And y’all, I'ma be real...

For a split second I thought, NO KIDDING LOOK AT ALL OF US, WE ARE ALL ABOUT TO PUKE.

But as I looked around, each of the other speakers put down their notes for a minute. They stood up from the make-up chair, walked over from where they were pacing and reciting their own speech AGAIN to walk over and face the stage or the screen where we could watch from the Green Room.

They held their arms out toward the stage.

They made prayer hands and closed their eyes.

They stood with feet spread wide, swaying back and forth, waving good energy out toward the stage.

Each of us, in whatever way our woowoo played out, did whatever it was that felt right to send some positive energy to our girl.

We each took a few minutes to pull our individual heads out of TEDx’s rear just long enough to redirect the group attention to the one who needed us at the time. We stopped focusing on ourselves. We were all individual players that day when we stood on the red dot… but we were still in it together.

We were a TEAM.

I missed the first photo opp, but snagged this sweet one later in the day because, y’all, it continued that way ALL DAY as each speaker took the stage:

If you’ve been getting these newsletters the past few months, you may recall my talk was titled, “Athletic Communication.”

There’s simply NO element more important to Athletic Communication than recognizing how to be a good teammate.

I’m eternally grateful to this amazing group I got to experience this with for showing me how that can play out in any situation.

Want to learn more about how this could play out for your people? Let’s connect.

Thank you to everyone who emailed me back last month with your youth sports (mis)adventure stories. Y’all make me laugh.

This time, will you tell me the best team you’ve ever been on? Youth sports, your department at work… I want to hear it all.

Here’s to remembering that even when we’re playing as individuals, we’re still on a team… and I’m glad you’re all part of mine!

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