Meetings? Uug!
I've done years and years and years of work meetings and I used to be SCARED to death of them. The first few years I did them at a company that, frankly, had nothing particuarly interesting to talk about so I'd often drift off or just stress out. Mind fuzz. Whatever. I found it very embarrasing when they'd call me out for something and I'd have no clue as to what they said and would often have to guess or try to piece together the pieces of the question I remembered.
When I got my job at my current company (who's culture IS meetings) I continued to freak out. I had one of my worst days ever in one where the project manager called me out for something that, frankly, wasn't my fault -- but I was easy pickings. After a while though, I learned to hyper-focus on the material and not my sweaty pits or shaking hands so they're not so bad now. Also seems that doing them enough gave me a kind of comfort level. When I started hosting meetings, the stress started all over again until I once again started to adapt. However, every time I'm in a meeting with superiors (Directors and the like) I tend to go through the whole stress routine again. For the most part I've learned to cope...but I still relapse on occasion. Sometimes I just get a mini relapse and my headshakes in a funny way. It's very subtle and I don't think anyone notices...but I sure do.
