I do not like speaking in front of people. I wouldn’t call it a fear of speaking in public, because I’m not even fond of standing in front of a crowd. I feel awkward.

I remember hearing this little piece of advice when I was younger, though I don’t hear it much anymore. Imagine that everyone in the audience is in their underwear. I don’t know who came up with that. When I was a kid, it didn’t do any good; I was more focused on the speaking than the people. Now that I am older and realize the people are there, I question the sanity of that advice. I mean no offense to people, but there are too many that I do not want to imagine like that. I know the original intention of that saying was to be helpful, but it falls short for me.

If you start thinking about it, how much other advice is unhelpful? If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Noble sentiment, but somewhat obvious, too. One of my favorites comes from basketball. A team has the ball, and is trying to get it to an open player. You can almost always hear someone yell, “shoot the ball.” That is the point of the game, to score points. Yet, the person yelling that is trying to give advice.

I still think we need to help others, but maybe it’s time to let some of the “tried and true” cliches fade away.