here are some of my experiences over the holidays that maybe some of you can
relate to…

.. it was my first ‘real’ Christmas in decades complete with a house full
of relatives including young kids, Christmas tree, outdoor lights, parties,
etc. and was quite a change to my usual holiday routine (mr. Grinch,
scrooge, bah humbug). The newness of this made it even more challenging.

.. everything mentioned in the below email proved accurate, but I didn’t
expect the intensity. it was very much like surfing a huge wave, white water
rafting, skiing a steep mogul run, sky diving, combat firefight, etc. very
difficult to focus on technique, or get in that important practice/warm-up
time … just had to go with it and do my best.

… being aware of the dynamics and complications indeed helped as did
going into the (several day) situation having done extra work to toughen my
discipline beforehand resulted in reasonably good speech. not perfect, but
much better than had I entered this challenge with complacency. Such a
challenge requires much respect for the difficulty.

One of the highlights was at the big Christmas party of my fluent speaking
buddy, George, where he finally started helping me cancel when I would first
start being sloppy rather than waiting hours or the next day to say
anything. he’s learning!!

I’m now back into my pre holiday routine of morning warm-up calls with our
little group of serious grads, practice contacts, etc. and once again feel
very confident and proud of the way I speak. Now to lose those ten pounds
from the undisciplined holiday eating and drinking .

dave

Here is a post sent to our international discussion group about why the holidays can result in more than usual stuttering blocks (aka ‘turbulence’) and what to do about it.

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(Sent Dec 20th, 2008. ” Happy Holidays, but watch out for turbulence …”)

I thought it would be good to remind everyone that this can be a tough time
of year for our speech. It seems to be full of many dynamics that can cause
turbulence and a trip to the swamp. Here’s a few things I spotted in my own
life as Christmas approaches:

… many more approach avoidance conflicts like what presents to buy, who to
buy for, who to invite, who’s invitations to accept, etc. Remember that
approach avoidance in one part of your life can lead to the old ‘fear of
stammering/desire to be fluent’ conflict.

… frequent social gatherings/parties which usually involves drinking
resulting many times in sloppy spontaneous, and not feeling like working on
speech the next day.

… this can be a very busy time of year cutting down on time and energy
available for practice.

… with busyness comes rushing which makes it difficult to resist time
pressure.

… with more social interactions, there’s more of a chance that certain
ones (introductions to strangers at parties, etc.) will be more difficult at
a time when we’re more vulnerable resulting in blocking and loss of
confidence.

… desire to spend vs. fear of the coming bad economic times (needing to
save).

… for people like myself who put on weight easily, it is difficult to stay
disciplined with a diet. poor discipline in one area can lead to poor
discipline in our speech. Putting on ten pounds during these holidays and
being back in the swamp is not good for the old hexagon.

 What to do? Most important for me is to just realize the above dynamics and
that this time of year is a tough challenge for my speech, and to not just
‘let it go’ because it’s holidays. Next is to make those warm up calls every
morning to drill the mentality and technique and to remind myself during the
day to show people I’m working on my speech and explain to my close friends
that this is a rough time and ask their help to let me know if they see/hear
me being sloppy.

Hope this helps, and hope you all have a great Christmas and prosperous,
happy, healthy, disciplined, New Year where you start doing more of those
things to realize your potential.

cheers,

dave