Things take as long as you want

Best 57 minutes and 2 seconds of my life

I have been stuttering and mumbling for a while now. Without communication skills, I’m useless. I got a speech professional to help me starting in 2022. It helped, yet my speech was far away from perfection.

In March 2023, I started creating videos on advanced self-improvement. The content I shared was valuable, but my voice was a significant obstacle, and the videos were painful to watch. My stutters were so pronounced that I had to record some of my earlier videos six times before producing an acceptable version. Even then, removing the stutters required a significant amount of editing. Can you imagine the frustration and self-doubt I felt during this process?

Talking in front of the camera is significantly more challenging than people anticipate. Professionals make it look easy – because they are masters at their craft. Most people, including me, struggle to say a single sentence on record without stuttering or adding noises.

As I recorded my first video, I couldn't even memorize a 300-word script, which made the stutters even worse.

My summer holidays began in July 2023. At that point, I considered my burnout over, so I took my camera and tried to record two á 5-minute videos. I edited both videos. As I edited the second one, I have reached a tipping point. I have had enough of my stutters.

That was on Wednesday, July 12th, 2023. Luckily, I had trained myself to identify opportunities, just as I had taught myself to look for hot blondes. Are those even different? Anyway, what was that opportunity? I knew I would go to Catalonia, Spain, for two weeks the next day; my mother likes vacations. Every day, I would make diary entries in the form of a video, unscripted and always first-try. I set my aim for 5 minutes a day—for 14 days, that's 70 minutes.

The next day, my family and I arrived in Pineda de Mar. I executed my plan. I would take out my camera and start speaking without preparation. If I missed a day, I would speak on the next morning. In total, I spoke for 57 minutes and 2 seconds.
It halved my stutters. – An unbelievable return on investment.

This story isn’t about speaking. It’s about speed and consistency. If you give a compliment per day, just one, your social skills will skyrocket. If you ask enough hot blondes, you will get one. If you want a sale, why not reach out to more people? If something needs repetition to be perfected, do it. Now.

Things take as long as you want them to.