Open mic nights are full of people who were terrified five minutes ago. That’s the whole lineup.

Everyone in that lineup was shaking in the hallway ten minutes earlier. Nerve is not a trait some people were issued and others were not, it is just what being scared and going anyway looks like from outside. The confident version you compare yourself to is a performance that started about four seconds ago.

Go watch something amateur in person this month: an open mic, a rec league, a student show. Notice how easily you forgive the shaky ones. Then hand yourself the same mercy you gave them without thinking about it.