How to handle “comparitanitus”

Most people I meet suffer from this at some level, especially when it comes to presenting.

You watch someone else delivering their message, compare yourself to them and feel that you will never be as good, capable, competent, confident … you choose the word.

We look at where someone is today, what they’re doing and how well they’re doing it and decide that they must always have been like that.

Ask them and you will quickly see that this isn’t true.

Lionel Messi is quoted as saying “I start early and I stay late, day after day, year after year, it took me 17 years and 114 days to become an overnight success.”

And yet if you had never seen him play football before, you might easily presume that he somehow was born with his exceptional skills!

Steve Jobs was a remarkable speaker … he was renowned for the time he took to prepare. As he said “Overnight success stories take a long time.”

So, what do you do when you start to see the sparks of “comparitanitus” happen to you?

Well firstly, ask yourself what you know about them and where they have come from … the answer is probably very little. And even if you believe you know their story … chances are you probably don’t really know!

Secondly, give yourself a break! For most of us, we don’t need to deliver the BEST presentation ever, we just need to be ourselves and the best version we can be in that moment.

Thirdly, remember that if you focus on standing still with your weight evenly distributed, taking your time, breathing calmly and holding your head up and level … you will look and sound more confident than you feel.

And the chances are that someone will be looking at you and thinking that in comparison, they really don’t match up to your skills.