Imposter Syndome and Pre Show Nerves
Dealing with performance anxiety
Hey friend,
I hope you've been well!
Have you ever struggled with Imposter Syndrome?
I feel like this is something every creative person deals with, and I have seen it in some of the most successful people I have met.
This week I have been working as a driver for a comedy festival and have had the opportunity to drive some pretty cool comics! Some very well known, and others I hadn’t heard of before.
One comic I was driving was SO nervous before his set that he was super nauseous, had nothing but short one word answers to anything I asked and seemed to not be in a very good place in his head. I asked him if he was excited for his set and he just said “no”. When I asked how long he had been doing stand up for he said 13 years!
It’s wild to me that someone that has over a decade of experience touring and performing their craft is still this much of a mess before his set. It’s a nice reminder that those times that you have crazy pre show nerves, are completely normal and some of the best in the world have those same nerves before they perform too.
That being said I did drive lots of other comics that were much more composed before and after their sets, even when they said they were nervous, they were still kind, understanding, and humble. Something that I can’t say about the first guy.
I think it’s important to remember that even though you may be nervous, feeling like an imposter and that you just need some space before your gig, you can still be kind to those around you, they are only trying to help. A few minutes into your set you will find your groove and Mr Hyde will be back in his place!
1 Cool Insight on Creativity and Psychology
When dealing with pre show nerves, the thing that I have found works the best is something called a Physiological Sigh. You take two deep breaths in through your nose and then a loooong exhale. Two in, loooong exhale. Repeat this over and over and your nerves will calm down very fast.
This is something I learned from Andrew Huberman and it calms down the nervous system when under stress. I use this breathing technique when I am doing jiu-jitsu, hiking, running, or when I have a lot of anxiety before shows. It calms the heart rate down quickly when out of breath, and calms anxiety down quite fast as well. Give it a try sometime!
1 Cool Thing I Learned This Week
Getting to interact with some pretty successful comics this week has been really cool and has let me see inside their process a little bit more.
I was driving two comics and they were discussing each others material and giving each other pointers on how they can develop their act a bit more.
I think this is an important insight to consider, even some of the best comics in the world look for feedback from their peers, and actively put into practice what they hear from them. We can’t do all of this alone.
Keep this in mind when you are working on some of your best work. Asking for feedback from your peers that you trust may help your work get even better!
Book Recommendation
Why I love this book
I finished this book this week and I think it is one that many of us need to read in the modern day. Johann lays out many of the reasons for our declining attention spans, ranging from faster technology, food quality dropping, lack of reading books, lack of unsupervised free play as kids, more stress, and many others.
He says that to regain our focus without changing some of the systemic causes will be a real struggle. These companies that we engage with daily have psychologists design their apps to be as addictive as possible. The only way for them to make more money is to keep us on their platform as long as possible.
The best that we can do is to be aware of some of these causes and try to deal with them in our own lives, but understand that it won’t be easy. We can turn off notifications, lock our devices up at a certain time of night, get outside more, eat healthier food, exercise, and try to live a less stressful life. The problem is that not everyone has the ability to do all of those things, we live in a very busy world and it keeps getting faster.
“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.” - Red Queen, Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carrol
Key Takeaways
Focus on one thing at a time don’t multitask
Food affects your ability to focus, eat a healthy meal before an important test or meeting
Read more books, sustained long form attention is a muscle that builds with time
Spend less time flipping through social media, it deeply affects your attention span
Give kids time to play without adult supervision, they need time to learn to cooperate, make games, and learn social skills without the help of adults. Kids who grow up this way become much more independent and creative as adults while people who grew up with helicopter parents often have anxiety issues and have a hard time coping with the realities of life.
Air pollution has a massive impact on our brain and can cause ADHD like symptoms.
Often times kids with ADHD have stressful lives at home, are victims of abuse, may have lost a parent or had some other form of trauma, etc. It is very hard to focus when our life is not stable and this is something most people over look. They don’t realize their kids attention problem can be caused by the stress of the parent.
This book was a really interesting one, and was an easy read! I found myself turning the pages, reading large portions at a time. It is written in a narrative form and it feels like a thriller at times. I will definitely be checking out his other books, I loved his writing!
If you want to check this book out, you can find it below!
Take care my friend,
- Niko
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