T-minus 1 hour until my talk starts. I should be looking over my presentation, and the truth is, I will as soon as I’m done with this post.

Why is it that I have a totally cool head about things like this, right up until about an hour beforehand? And then I start to get all those classic stage fright symptoms – sweaty palms, sweaty armpits, nervous stomach, shaky hands. If I could just fast-forward through this hour I’d be fine. Once I start talking (or at least by the time I get a few slides into the talk), I’m golden. The talk will rush by in a blur and then I’ll look back on it and wonder where all of it came from. I come up with answers to questions that just pop into my head by sound so smart that I don’t know where they come from. I rarely stumble. So then why am I fucking nervous as all hell now?