Walking through the jungle is hard. You have to hack your way through the thick brush with machetes. That’s really tough to do with your backpack on. Even the pros leave their backpacks behind when they’re chopping their way through. They come back and pick them up later.

Thinking is hard too. According to Men’s Health, chess grandmasters can burn more calories in two hours than an average person running on a treadmill for the same amount of time.

I’m not saying thinking about your presentation is a mental performance at a chess grandmaster level, but… You’re doing some significant thinking too. Hopefully. It gets really tough to hack through the jungle of your thoughts as you’re turning them into words that other people could understand.

Like in the jungle – if you’re walking a path of thoughts for the first time, you’ll need to hack your way through. You’ll likely be slow.

The question is: Do you want a room full of people – or everyone on the conference call – to watch you struggle as you’re doing it? Or would you prefer to let them watch you elegantly breeze through?

---

In the jungle of your thoughts – spend enough time alone. This way, you’ll be able to make sure you’re walking in the right direction. And you will have as much time to hack through as you will need.

Having cleared the path, now you can pick-up the audience. They will be excited to have such a pro as a guide on their journey.

You will sweat way less, too.