Preparation to Transformation

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

Abraham Lincoln

Back in 2016, when I found out I was selected as one of the speakers for a TEDxTalk, my heart jumped in celebration. After the dust settled and the good news wore off, it was my stomach’s turn to leap, out of an airplane into a bottomless void. The pressure to deliver on this platform brought along with it anxiety and nerves. What if I can’t think of a compelling topic? What if inspiration never comes? What if this was a big mistake?

After a brief panic, I gathered myself and spent two weeks writing out my talk. Once the writing phase was complete, I had about 21 days until the event. Judging from how nervous I was, I knew if I wanted to succeed, I had to take my preparation to the next level. Every day after work, I could be found in mom’s garage–crammed in between old Nissan tires and boxes of Christmas ornaments–practicing the speech at game speed. I stayed there all night fine-tuning every aspect of my talk. Nearing the end of each marathon session, my voice was hoarse, my mind was fuzzy and it was harder to recall every part of the speech. But due to the magnitude of the event and my fear of being underprepared, I powered through and kept rehearsing.  

Every day after work, I could be found in mom’s garage–crammed in between old Nissan tires and boxes of Christmas ornaments–practicing the speech at game speed.

On the day of the event, ten minutes before showtime, I was backstage mumbling each section, mentally hitting every mark. I was ready. Once my name was introduced, I walked on stage with a confidence earned only through untold hours of practice and repetition of my craft. I was in an unshakeable zone.  As the opening lines barani flipped out of my mouth, everything just clicked. I knew something was special about this moment.

Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi, a psychology professor at Claremont Graduate University in California, calls it the “flow state” which he defined as, “a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it” (1990).” 

My level of preparation beforehand brought me to this flow state. I was fully present in the moment. My concentration was uninterrupted. Time slowed down while my mind remained agile and quick. Communicating my message was effortless, it just poured out. This talk remains one of the highlights of my public speaking journey. It also set the standard for my speech rehearsal. To me, it was simple math, the more I practiced the speech, the more confident I felt before and during the performance. 

?uestlove once told a story how Jay-Z’s preparation for tours evolved over time: 

“…And I told him, ‘If you want to know all these songs, studies say that if you repeat anything 18 times in a row it will instantly get committed to memory.” So at first he was like, “Aw man, I’ll just do it like six times or whatever.” No. But then he would forget and I said, “Look dude, if you do it 18 times in a row and we’ll be straight.” So we did a little schedule for like nine days before, four songs a day, you know, three-hour rehearsal, take a break, three-hour rehearsal, take a break, and that’s how he committed it to memory.”

In any situation requiring a high-level performance, preparation is critical, specifically, when you need to manage your nerves five minutes before it’s time to go on. This is the danger zone, where doubts grow to the size of skyscrapers and loom over your shoulder. Your stomach is in a perpetual freefall causing your hands to tremor. You begin to imagine all of the ways your performance can go awry. You question yourself. Did you practice enough? Could you have done more? This moment is challenging for even the most seasoned performers but its doubly terrifying for someone underprepared. 

I’ve been that person, five minutes before a speech, shaking in fear and regretting my lack of preparation. As a result, I struck out in front of everyone. Much of public speaking is psychological and if you’re in the danger zone and you are wishing you did more to prepare then you’re already at a disadvantage. 

Alternatively, when it’s five minutes to showtime and I’m feeling confident about my preparation, I am in a better position to manage my self-doubt. During these vulnerable moments, my mind will automatically second guess and question everything but when I go above and beyond in my rehearsal, I have a better handle in calming this trepidation because I know deep down I did everything that I could to be ready. It’s a tiny shift in mindset but I’ve seen it make a huge difference.  

Muhammad Ali famously stated, “I don’t count my sit–ups; I only start counting when it starts hurting because they’re the only ones that count.”

Whatever the preparation may be, whether it’s for a math test, basketball game, or division-wide presentation, I think the key is practicing till your mind says quit and then finding the inner fortitude to push beyond those limits. When you get to that breaking point and you find it within yourself to persevere then success is yours to claim. 

In Jesse Itzler’s Living With A SEAL, he calls it the 40% percent rule which is when you feel that you’ve reached your limit and ready to quit, you’ve actually only exhausted 40% of your total energy. You still have a lot more in the tank than your mind is leading you to believe. We can be our own worst enemies when it comes to our progress. We want to stay comfortable with what we know and are familiar with. During practice, when our minds suggest that we quit, is exactly the precise moment to push forward. 

We can be our own worst enemies when it comes to our progress.

I believe for anyone interested in taking their performance to the next level, they have to approach their preparation with a willingness and desire to go beyond their limits. This must be the intended goal for each practice session. In doing so, you’ll be anticipating the moment where you want to quit and when that time comes, you must make a commitment to yourself that you will keep going no matter what. Whether it’s 5, 10, or 15 more reps, you will keep going. 

Preparation is often one of the biggest factors in deciding the outcome of a performance. It can either make you or break you. For people that are driven to becoming the best in their respective craft, dedicating more time to pushing beyond your boundaries during the preparation phase can create the conditions for a transformative performance come showtime.