Overcome Meeting Nerves with This Simple Shift in Mindset

As I prepared for an upcoming meeting, my nerves were getting to me. I told a colleague that I was getting anxious. I was about to make a recommendation that I knew the group would likely push back on.

My colleague then asked me a simple question: “What are you afraid of?” That question unraveled me. It hit me, I felt fear. The answer, as it turned out, was fear itself.

Facing the Unknown

What causes us to fear? If you get on a plane and strap a parachute to your back, will you jump? For many of us the answer is “no.”

Why won’t you jump? We don’t need to actually board that plane to understand why.

I knew I had a good recommendation. It wasn’t just my own, it came out of a collaboration with my team. It was based on learning from past failures and building on what would most likely make the project succeed.

Then it hit me. That is where my fear came from, a lack of confidence. I could not guarantee the outcome if the group followed my recommendation. So how could I possibly walk into a meeting and give it with confidence?

Embracing Failure as a Stepping Stone

Predicting the future always carries uncertainty. For much of our routine in life we have become comfortable with that. I know that if I roll out of bed in the morning my legs will hit the ground and I will stand up this works until one morning my leg is asleep and I crash to the floor.

Recognizing that we cannot predict the future is exactly what should drive us to keep trying. We learn by doing, and when we do, we sometimes fail. I realized I could hesitate, stay nervous, and take the safe path, the obvious choice. Or I could take the other one the less comfortable path, the one that might not work out, but the one I would definitely learn more from.

Finding Confidence in Experience and Trust

With that perspective, I just had to look around. I had a brilliant team around me that I trusted. We had done things like this before; we had experience solving similar problems. The recommendation I was about to give was grounded in that experience. With that perspective, I was able to give it in the meeting with all the confidence I needed.

In the end, fear is a natural response to uncertainty, but it shouldn’t paralyze us. By embracing the possibility of failure, we open ourselves to immense learning and growth. My experience with that meeting taught me that confidence comes not from guarantees, but from the knowledge gained through past efforts and the support of a trusted team. Moving forward, I choose to confront my fears, knowing that even in failure there lies the opportunity to learn and become stronger.