I don’t have many examples, but to bring one or two up one was my scuba diving course in Thailand.
The dive instructor showed everything and we copied him in a pool. And everytime we had to do all the things I just looked bad.
Another example was climbing. They show how to tie the knot to harness, everyone successfully manages to tie the knot and I am standing their like an idi**.
The thing is what I observed is that if I have time to do things on my own and no pressure I seem to do “okay” and once I can do it I do it blind.
Anyone else experience this? What can I do? I am at a point I am afraid to learn new things because of failing infront of others.
One thing that helped me is to imagine the worst, best, and likely scenarios to occur. Like tying a knot. Worst: I cannot do it, everyone there laughs at me and the instructor says I am the dumbest person they’ve ever seen. Pretty unrealistic. Best: I do it perfectly the first time, help everyone else, and they all think I am some sort of genius. Likely: it probably takes me a few times, but I’m certainly not the worst the instructor has seen. Everyone else takes one or two tries and mostly sympathizes that the knot isn’t trivial to learn.
Reminding myself that I am not the worst ______ a professional has ever seen really helps a lot. I’m usually pretty far down there, but like. At least I’m not the actual worst.
Worst: You tie the knot, go climbing, fall down, knot doesn’t hold, you go to hospital or die.
That’s not realistic. It’s a beginner class, they aren’t going to take you on something dangerous and make you tie the knots holding yourself on the first day.
In my personal experience, if I learn it wrong first, then I will keep that mistake. That is why learning it right first is so important to me, and I can only do that in peace, without disruptions from bystanders.