Dealing with anxiety

One of the members of the list asked me about some techniques to control anxiety. This is a great question since it is one of the most frequent problems you will face when speaking.

First things first: it's okay to be nervous at first. It's normal and most people have that feeling before addressing an audience. Even professional speakers who have been honing their craft for years still face this issue.

Nervousness either helps or hinders your speech, depending on how it is used. To properly deal with nervousness, you need to know where it comes from. Is it coming from an emotion that moves you forward, or an emotion that holds you back?

Are you nervous because you're excited, you're looking forward to giving your speech, because you are full of energy and you need to let it out? Or, are you nervous because you haven't prepared enough, or because you are worried, or because you'd like to be somewhere else?

As you might have guessed, the second form of nervousness is the one that will cause you problems. The first type of nervousness, the one that comes from excitement and enthusiasm, is much easier to deal with. It mainly requires a bit of control to keep you from bouncing off the walls.

The second type of nervousness, the one that prevents you from focusing on the task you need to accomplish, is more difficult to dissipate. It requires more work, and more mental preparation. Here are some tips that can help you.

• Prepare early and practice often: early preparation and early practice are your best strategies to reduce anxiety. The more time you take to prepare and practice, the more time you have to get comfortable with your speech. The more comfortable you are with your speech, the less anxious you will feel.
• Don't learn everything by heart: if you learn everything by heart, anxiety will come from the fear of forgetting some parts of your speech. There are some things you should know by heart, or close to it: the stories and anecdotes you want to tell, your introduction, and your conclusion. For everything else, just remember your general ideas and your structure and you'll be fine.
• Mental conditioning: anxiety comes from having negative thoughts. Your thoughts will generate your emotions. Change your thoughts, you'll change your emotions. So instead of focusing on everything that could go wrong, focus on your audience and everything that will go right. When you change your focus and take it away from you and turn it towards your audience, you will lose much self-consciousness, which in turn will reduce stress.
• Learn your introduction by heart: as mentioned earlier, your introduction is something you ought to learn well enough that you can deliver it without hesitation. Why? Because it is one of the most important pieces of your speech, since it is the first thing your audience will hear. If you learn it by heart, and you practice it enough that it becomes part of your being, then magic will occur when you do your speech. As you begin to deliver your speech to your audience, your body will remember how you felt when you practiced, and you will start to feel that feeling. It becomes automatic, you don't need to think about it, it'll just happen.

Nervousness is only a moment in time during your speech. And like all moments, it will pass rapidly and only a vague memory will remain. Don't worry too much about it, trust yourself and have fun delivering your speech!

© Laurent Duperval