Nervous vs. Excited - Simon Sinek

 I was also watching the Olympics and I realized this when I was watching the London Olympics and I was annoyed by how all the journalists asked all the athletes the same stupid question literally, everyone... "Were you nervous?" or "Are you nervous?" whether it was before or after the event.

Every single time. And every single time all the athletes gave the exact same answer ... "No, I was excited." "No, I'm excited." Every single time. These elite athletes had learned to interpret body stimulus ... what are the signs of nervousness? Your heart races, you visualize the future, and your hands get clammy.

What is the stimulus for excitement? Your heart races, you visualize the future, and your hands get clammy. They had learned to interpret what their body was telling them not as nerves but as excitement. And the reason the journalists said, "Were you nervous?" is because they would be nervous. Athletes would never say that to each other.

They'd say, "That was exciting!" So I tried it. I did a little test on myself. I'm on a plane, and we start hitting some really bad turbulence. I go (gasp) and then I say to myself, literally out loud, "This is exciting!" And I was fine. And I was fine. So I do it a lot now. When I find myself getting nervous I say to myself, "This is so exciting" and I'll explain the reason to myself why. 

So, like an actor, you don't get nervous when you go on stage anymore but occasionally you do. So I get to go on stage a lot and I don't really get nervous much anymore but I was going to present to 3,000 chiefs of police right in the middle of all this police brutality hullabaloo and I got really nervous because the stakes were really high and I was literally getting nervous backstage and I said to myself, "This is so exciting.

I have an opportunity to talk to a group of people who can actually affect change in this country. This is really exciting." Now I could have said the same thing, "I'm so nervous, I'm about to talk to people who could ... " but the interpretation was excitement. Just change the narrative. It works brilliantly well.