Utkarsh Narang talks with a guest about overcoming stage fright through coaching, meditation, and forced practice. The guest also shares how he learned to embrace uncertainty during solo travel and sleep anywhere by treating snoring as a soothing sound from his hostel days.
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It can be really moving for someone who's been on the stage and who thrives almost on a stage to sense that moment, the one that you just shared about. So what was the process there?
Well, it was, it was kind of mysterious to me because I freaked out at first because I thought, oh my God, my livelihood is in danger here. Like, this is what I do. I stand on stage and, you know, and do this type of thing. I got some help from a friend who was a coach and He just helped me, gave me some techniques that helped a lot. And I was doing a lot of meditating. That was something that helped, but it didn't take it away. And, but I was in a situation where I had to do it. I had to face into it and, and I just learned to cope. And then one, I noticed just one day the feeling had gone. And so it sort of just sat at a different one level and then just fell away.
Because it can be Really moving for someone who's been on the stage and who thrives almost on a stage to sense that moment, uh, the one that you just shared about. So what was the process there?
Well, it was, it was kind of mysterious to me because I freaked out at first because I thought, oh my God, my livelihood is in danger here. Like, this is what I do. I stand on stage and, you know, and do this type of thing. Um, I got some help from a friend who was a, a coach. And he just helped me, gave me some techniques that helped a lot. And I was doing a lot of meditating. That was something that helped, but it didn't take it away.
Hmm.
And, and, but I was in a situation where I had to do it. I had to face into it. And, and I just learned to cope. But then one, I noticed just one day the feeling had gone. And so it sort of just sat at a different one level and then just fell away. And I couldn't even tell you why. I couldn't even tell you why it disappeared then. But, you know, as anything in life, you make up a story to explain it, right? So, you know, my story is that COVID let me, you know, rest a little bit and I got back on board and I was okay. Um, so anyway, we don't know for sure.
Yeah, it's fascinating. And I, I don't think we, we know enough of the human mind and how the human body really operates to go through these phases in everyone's life. And, and if anyone feels that someone else in the world is born perfect and their journey is perfect, I think that's the biggest, I would say, the myth that we would be operating with.
Oh yeah, that's true. That's true. Everyone's got their things they're dealing with, that's for sure. Yeah.
Coming back to the airport mindset. So my take on that is, I think what you were saying to me, that if I'm traveling alone and for work, to me, that's zen space. Like, I love my flight time because there's no internet, there's no connectivity. So I'm like in my own zone. So I like— how do you feel about the airport mindset?
Well, my mindset is really around that anything could go wrong, and but that's how life works in an airport. I remember, you know, arriving in an airport in Kenya and the whole You know, sort of foyer of the airport was just jam-packed full of people. Like, you couldn't get anywhere near where you were supposed to check in. And apparently the systems had gone down. And so I just, you know, got into one of the lines and I just waited. And I figured, well, this is just airport time, you know, things will get sorted out. It took ages, but eventually it got through the system. But if you were to get all concerned and worried and think everything has to run on time and run the way you expect, I think you'd be in quite a state. So there's that. And the other thing is that I'm lucky that often when my customers are sending me places, they, they send me business class. But when I'm traveling in economy class, usually when I'm on my own holidays, right, is that I jump into the seat and I say to myself, this is my— this is silly, really silly, but you know, I sort of say, this is my little room, right?
Mm-hmm.
I've got everything. Everything's just within arm's distance away. Everything's right here for me. And I settle in and I more or less say, I love this. I love this.
Yeah.
Instead of fighting it. Like, if you jump in and you fight it, you have a miserable trip, right?
Yeah.
And I'll tell you one other area in which this works for travelling, right? And my wife just can't believe it. So when we— we've been together for many, many years. And so in our 20s, we travelled around Europe. And we'd be in youth hostels, etc. And in youth hostel, of course, you're sleeping together with a— sometimes there's a whole bunch of men that you're sleeping with, and sometimes it's co-ed. Um, but snoring, right, can be just on the next level.
Yeah.
And I managed to teach myself in those early days to love snoring, right? So when someone started snoring, I'd go, oh gee, I love that sound. That is That's so relaxing. That's so relaxing. And I would go to sleep, whereas everyone else would be, you know, cursing that person for the, you know, sawing down another tree, you know, the way they, the way they snore. So that's kept me in such good stead, right? It means I can sleep practically anywhere, which is tremendous.
Yeah, it's a gift. It is a gift. A gift.
That's right.
I agree. My wife does not sleep well on airplanes, so She's like, you sit in the craft and then you're gone. What happens? I'm like, I sleep so well on the airplanes. Yeah, sleeping anywhere is definitely a gift. And so maybe as we were speaking about everything, you know, part of me like wanted to just kind of put forth a challenge and it's okay for you to decline this at any moment. So before we move on to how that 8-year-old grew up and when did stories kind of emerge into your life, Yeah. Is there a story from your growing up That you feel just you vividly remember and you'd love to share it here with the— with our audience and whatever that lesson might be, but just a story that is worth sharing. Thank you for watching this clip. If this was of value, then you would love this full podcast episode with the guest that you just saw. I'm just putting this link somewhere left or right of me that you should just click on and watch the full episode. We talk about deep ideas, insights about life, leadership, You as an individual and you as a professional in this beautiful yet so chaotic world of ours.
