John & Public Speaking
John was a drill sergeant in the Marines who later became a state trooper. He then went to law school and passed the bar exam. John is tough, smart, and driven to succeed.
He was also terrified of public speaking.
The mere thought of talking to a jury or in front of a judge and other attorneys crumbled John into a panic ball. His energy level dropped and anxiety overcame him.
As a yellow belt student, John told me, “If you get me to black belt and fix this, I’ll give you free legal services for life!”
What John didn’t realize is that the mind and body work together. When your body feels like crap, your mind will sink lower. Conversely, when your mind is down your body will follow and become weak. All this leads to anxiety, stress, low energy, and fatigue.
Mind & Body
We train both the mind and body at the same time, to use and help one another.
When you workout, your body becomes tight, lean, and strong. You build up your energy. You wouldn’t need a remote control for the television, because your body will want to get up off the couch. Grabbing a snack for a loved one or getting up for a Kleenex, these are all things you’ll want to do because you have all this excess energy.
And when your mind is clear you become more alert. You make good decisions and have a better outlook on life. There’s a real sense of accomplishment when you have this energetic body that wants to do things and a mind that is willing to give it orders and tasks to do.
Overcoming The Fear
For John, we started working on his fear of public speaking by sparring. He discovered that physically sparring was very much like mentally sparring. Focusing your mind to react in the same manner your body would gave John the edge when presenting in court.
The patterns and techniques we train our body to do helped John place his thoughts in a logical order. It helped him organize his cases so that speaking to a jury became second nature. The fear was gone.
It worked out really well for John. A few years later he successfully opened his own law firm.
We’re still friends today…and he still gives me free legal services.
