Ways to Reduce Nervousness

“If you’re not nervous, you’re not alive.”

—Miles Davis

“Confidence is like fitness. It must be cultivated every day.”

—Mia Hamm

Nervousness is part of public speaking. It’s natural and it can be put to good use provided it is controlled. Or at least converted from mind-seizing apprehension to creative energy and passion. Here are some ways people have learned to deal with the jitters and harness the power of nervous energy to make better speeches.

• Speak about something you love.
• Prepare—have mastery over your material.
• Practice…practice…practice: rehearse enough to be comfortable with your material, but not so much that it becomes rote or robotic.
• Use Visualization Technique (mentally preview giving your presentation).
• Think positively; e.g., go in looking forward to giving it and enter with confidence.
• Know your audience (if possible, meet and mingle with some members beforehand).
• Find the familiar/friendly faces in the audience and speak to them when you begin.
• Begin by bantering or talking informally with your audience. When you feel calmer and you and they settle down, pause, and then begin your speech.
• Memorize your introduction (not the whole speech) to get past initial nervousness.
• Breathe! Take several deep breaths as you come up to speak; be conscious of your breathing (and your pace) and slow both down if you start to tighten up and speed up during the speech.
• Build frequent and appropriately placed pauses into your talk.
• Have good materials (e.g., notes, outline, script, visual aids—whatever works for you) handy that you can rely on and refer to as needed.
• Don’t be too dependent on notes, script, etc. What happens if you lose your place?
• Use hand gestures and other appropriate movements to relieve stress and tightness.
• Be yourself; act naturally.
• Stand where you feel most confident (for some it’s behind the lectern; for others, it’s getting closer to the audience); if appropriate and more comfortable, speak sitting down.
• Use humor provided it’s appropriate to the occasion, the audience, and the subject.
• Remember, you’re the expert; you know what you want to say better than anyone.
• So what if you make a mistake? Admit it (if you need to) and move on. Laugh at yourself. Nothing connects with an audience better than a speaker who’s big enough to laugh at him- or herself. Look at the way President Kennedy handled his mistake.
• Try Amy Cuddy’s power postures before you get up to speak.

Additional hints

• Get a good night’s sleep.
• Avoid caffeine; have water handy.
• Keep things that call attention to your nervousness like jewelry, loose change, key chains, papers that shake, pens that tap, etc. off your person and out of your hand.
• Put speaking into perspective. Imagine the really bad things that could happen to you. They’re undoubtedly much worse than getting up and giving a speech.

Summary 

If you remember nothing else from this list, remember this: It’s natural to worry about what people think about you. But it’s a lot more effective—and more fun—to get up there with the idea that you can’t wait to tell people what you think.