I’m teaching a class on performance anxiety and imposter syndrome this week and in preparation discovered that 80% of us – not just performers and entertainers – experience it in our lives.

Barbra Streisand famously said “The only way I could perform was to believe I had something important to say.  If I thought about the audience judging me, I’d freeze.  But if I focused on the message in the music — I could sing.”

Lizzo:  “I used to get nervous before every show, thinking I had to prove myself.  Now I remind myself: I’m not here to be perfect — I’m here to be present.”

World renown violinist Hilary Hahn said “Performance anxiety never fully goes away — but I’ve learned to welcome it. It means I care.  I don’t try to fight it anymore; I work with it, like a partner.”

I’ll save you the tuition of taking the course to hearing the answer to performance anxiety that is so rampant in our world today – and it’s so simple but true.

Keep going.

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