An actor Tara worked with had debilitating stage fright — until one day, well into a run, he called and said: “Now I get nervous if I don’t have stage fright, because it gives me all this energy to get through the show.” The butterflies at 5 o’clock had become his fuel, not his enemy.
This is the ultimate reframe of performance anxiety: stage fright is a fuel cell. It’s the energy to get through presenting to a board, raising money, speaking to 500 people. The question shifts from “how do I get rid of this terrible feeling?” to “how do I welcome this energy and let it propel me?”
Tara describes the transformation as alchemical — “turning shit into gold.” You don’t conquer stage fright. You don’t make it go away (she still gets it after three decades of work). You change your relationship to it so that the same energy that used to shut you down now powers your performance.
Related Concepts
- Fear is excitement without the breath
- Embrace intensity for transformation
- Embracing intensity curbs addiction