When Your Career Starts To Scare You.

So I have to do a speech tomorrow and I told my boss that I would do it and that I was excited. Except I was more 50/50 of excited and terrified since speeches terrify me no matter how many times I do them.
When the coordinator called me this morning to get last minute items sorted out I asked a question that you should never, never ask if you are even a tiny bit nervous about public speaking. "How many people are you expecting?"
200.
More than I have ever gotten in front of before. More than I can comfortably talk to one on one. In other words, enough to scare the hell out of me.
When your career gets scary it means that you are moving forward. It means that you are trying new things that other people might be too scared to do and it means that you are definitely breaking out of the "show up at 9 and go home at 5" routine. I try to keep this in mind while trying to remember if I still have any xanax at home.
Here's the advice I collected so far this morning:
"Just look at one person at a time - pretend like you're just talking to them."
"The people you are speaking to want you to succeed, not fail"
"It's only 45 minutes of your life - shorter than a Housewives of New York episode"
and my favorite one:
"You are NOT nervous! You're gonna be like Listen, This is how you market! You got that shit on Lockdown!"