How to Overcome Public Speaking Nerves
There are very few people who are able to get up in front of a crowd of people without feeling public speaking nerves.
Just watch actors and actresses speaking at the Oscars and see how some of them start to stammer and stutter. If you suffer from excessive public speaking nervousness, you should immediately feel a whole lot better. After all, these are people who are being awarded for their acting skills, and here they are falling apart at the seams. The thing is though, that the Oscars are awarded to movie stars and not to people who are trained to act on stage, in front of a live audience. While both stage and screens stars may be able to act with great confidence and credibility, the two disciplines are quite different to one another when it comes to nerves.
Stage fright is generally what leads to nervous public speaking. Movie stars don’t have to stand on a stage and perform. They don’t have to face an audience. Their audience will judge them later on. So when movie stars are placed in a situation that forces them to ad-lib or improvise a speech without lots of preparation and rehearsing, sometimes they just can’t get it right.
Feel better? You should. But now you are going to want to get to grips with how to overcome your nerves when you have to speak in public.
First off, be prepared. Unless you are called on to speak spontaneously, make sure you have an outline that you can follow. You don’t have to learn a speech off by heart — in fact it’s better not to do this. But you do need to have a very good idea of what you are going to say. Oscar winners have usually prepared their speeches. Even though they didn’t know they were going to win, they do know they are nominees. But maybe not all of them practice enough.
A proven approach is to make key words that you can refer to during your talk. Write these on small envelope-sized card so that you don’t have to hold sheets of paper that flap, or a notebook that you have to page through. One of the most common symptoms of stage fright is trembling. Your hands start to shake and your legs feel all wobbly. And if your hands are trembling, you aren’t going to find it easy to hold anything to refer to. So keep it small.
If you know your subject well, and you really have planned your speech, then the key words will help to keep you on track. You may always feel nervous when you speak in front of a crowd of people, but the more practice and experience you get, the easier it will become. Practice in front of the mirror, in front of friends and family. Join a Toastmaster’s group.
Something else that helps to minimize stage fright is to do some deep breathing just before you go on stage. Also consciously relax your body so that you increase the flow of oxygen to your brain. Breathe so that your entire chest cavity expands. You will find that this helps your speech as well, because you will be more in control and your voice tone will improve.
Last of all, try to feel confident. Even if you aren’t, act as if you are!
