pithy
brief, forceful, and meaningful in expression; full of vigor, substance, or meaning; terse; forcible: a pithy observation.
of, like, or abounding in pith.
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Chris paced along his dressing room. He had turned the air conditioning as high as he could to keep his nervous sweating in check. It had limited effect, but at least it would keep the obvious signs hidden from the audience. He glanced over at the pile of note cards again. Thoughts flashed through his mind.
Should he change anything? Was there a better way to say what he wanted to? He had to forcefully remind himself that the answer to those questions was “no.” At least, not so close to the speech itself. At this point, trying to change anything would likely lead to total failure. And he had spent so long working on the speech that it was crazy to think that anything more could be done to it.
He had packed everything he could into that brief speech. A few minutes was all he had, and he had done his best to make every word as powerful as he could. Even the smallest words was carefully chosen for maximum impact. To change even one would ruin the entire thing.
No, there was no chance of improving anything. Maybe if he had another month, but now it was as good as it was going to get. That did not help Chris’ mental state. The speech was fine, but he was not. He knew he had nothing to worry about. He had practiced so many times in front of dozens of people. He knew he was ready. Just because this speech could easily determine the course of his entire future was nothing to be worried about.
He just had to leave all that out of his mind and focus on the words. That was what mattered. Not the extremely powerful people who would be watching him. Or the rest of the people who were also giving short, meaningful speeches aiming for the same thing he was. Many of whom were probably better at public speaking than he was. But that did not matter, right? He had worked damn hard for this, and he just needed to put all that effort into his words. The words that he had spent almost a year preparing.
He stopped pacing. He took a deep breath, hoping to calm his nerves. He kept repeating the words of the speech in his mind, going over every word, every syllable, every inflection and tone he would use. As he let himself go, focusing on the speech instead of his nervousness, he could feel himself begin to unwind. He was not completely relaxed, not by a long shot. But it was enough to not seem like a nervous wreck who was in the middle of a constant panic attack. That was already much better than just a few minutes ago.
There was a knock on the door. Someone called for him, telling Chris that it was time to deliver his speech. He took a long, slow breath and retrieved his note cards. He was as ready as he was ever going to be. He just hoped that was enough.
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I'm not very good at public speaking, and would never be able to stake my entire future on a single speech. It wouldn't matter how much I worked on it, I just wouldn't be able to deliver it properly.
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