"Do it trembling if you must, but do it"


- Emmett Fox


All eyes were upon me as I maneuvered my three-wheeled scooter towards the podium. I had joined Toast Masters as a way to help rebuild my destroyed confidence and now was the time to put up or shut up. Although the scooter was a good substitute for my legs, I could not effectively lift my arms. This meant that if my extremely weakened grip slipped off the handlebars into my lap, I could not operate the scooter. With the spastic nature of my nervous system, I was often prone to panic attacks. With fear of public speaking ranking near the top of the list of things mankind fears, a perfect storm seemed to be brewing for such an attack. I had no caregiver help at this time and had taken the bus for the privilege of this self-torture, so I had no one to help me if I were to blackout. Without the use of my hands, I could not shuffle through note cards and therefore had to deliver the entire speech from memory. Once I was in place and looked out over the audience, I had the worst fear of all- I had no idea whether anyone in the listening audience would be able to understand a word of my severely affected speech.


One thing about fear- everyone feels it. I know there are some people that appear fearless, but are they? If so, how did they get that way? I’ve seen people talk about getting over their fear of something before they are willing to try it. Fear doesn’t work that way. You must stare fear down and take action in spite of it. Over time, the fear of that particular thing will lessen and eventually dissipate, but you must first feel the fear and take action in its face. You will learn that fear is natural and eventually begin eradicating it by consistently facing it down and moving forward. How did my speech go? At the end of the evening, I had a group of people crowding around me to congratulate and thank me for having the courage to give my presentation. I put myself in a terrifying position because I knew I needed to face the fear and do it anyway. Today when I speak publicly, I still get the normal jitters, but nothing that will come close to stopping me from doing what I now love to do.

Randall Thomas (Salem, OR)

Nice post Randall.

Very, very few are fearless!!

Fear is good...it keeps you on your toes, keeps you sharp; especially at those club competitions!!