No. “Cure is a bullshit word.” That’s how I put it in one of my conversations. I beat my stutter. I’m fluent. But I still work on myself. I work to have high confidence in my speech.
I want to be very smooth. There are times when I’m super smooth and times when I’m human and it’s just an okay day. I have a lot of good days. I care about taking that speech into the real world.
I have to bring it into the next conversation
The fluency I bring on a Tuesday still has to be brought again on a Thursday. Having a good conversation once doesn’t speak for me the next time.
It’s a new conversation with a new person on a new day. You’ve got to produce then and there. That’s why I say fluency is won. Each day you win it again the next fucking day.
That is what I mean by the work continuing. I still want confidence when I make a call, go out, stand in front of people, or deal with something I wasn’t expecting.
There was a lot of practice behind it
I failed a lot of times. I could be trying to speak spontaneously, somebody would say something, and I wasn’t quick enough or I blocked. There was a lot of practice involved in figuring out how this worked for me.
I spent years applying what I was learning. Going out on dates. Applying for jobs. Doing it at work. Standing up in front of colleagues. Calling people. Those were chances to test what worked and what did not.
There is room for optimism. There is room for change. I’ve said that too. I can’t promise the results, but I can tell you that I was very determined. That is the experience I’m sharing.