We don’t know the difference between a starting block and a stage

A quarterback warms up his throwing arm. A sprinter fires up her fast-twitch muscle fibers. When we speak, we use the same biological logic: vocal cords, diaphragm, articulators, and the neural pathways governing language and presence all need priming.

The mechanism is identical; we just don't frame communication as athletic performance, so the preparation norm never really took hold.

We've professionalized athletic warm-ups through sports science. Communication has historically been treated as a "soft" or innate skill. As something you either have or don't, rather than a physical and cognitive performance that responds to preparation.

That framing is simply wrong, and increasingly, executive coaches, performance specialists, and neuroscientists are saying so.

Remember: Your body and brain don't know the difference between a starting block and a stage. They just know whether you showed up ready.