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English Idiom: Get cold feet
Have you ever gotten cold feet?
I mean, have you ever been afraid to do something you had planned to do?
People experience fear before jumping off a diving board for the first time, getting married (not necessarily for the first time) or giving a presentation in front of a live audience.
That’s what happens when you get cold feet; you are afraid to do something you initially wanted to do.
It’s entirely reasonable to experience anxiety or trepidation before doing something in front of a large number of people.
Generally speaking, the more you do it, the easier it gets; it’s like riding a bicycle.
It’s easy for me to say it, but you have to push through the fear, overcome the anxiety and conquer the trepidation by not thinking about what could happen but what you will do.
I think people usually experience fear out of a feeling of being powerless.
For example, when you give a speech, you are in control; you have the power.
The audience is waiting for you to speak.
You can control what you say and how you say it.
From my experience, the best way to get over cold feet is to wear a warm pair of socks (English teacher humour), take a deep breath and do what you must.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 68.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.