Here are 5 tried and tsted ways to overcome your stage frght and nervousness! And yes, I get nrvous all the time. The question is how wll you cover it up or lverage it to make your speech ven more impactful!

1. Thoroughly Prepare

Go through your materials as many times as possible, until you are comfortable with them. Write your speech ahead of time and give yourself a lot of time to rehearse. If possible, rehearse as if you are giving the actual presentation. In other words, incorporate your props (if any), staging (how you move, where you position) and delivery (body gestures, eye contact) into your rehearsal. Because the more you practice, the more comfortable you will be. And the more comfortable you are, the more confident you will be. Simple logic.

2. It’s all about stage time!

The more often you speak, the better you become. It is that simple. When you speak frequently, you begin to know what to expect. You become more proficient in preparing and giving your speech. Given more speaking opportunities, you will inevitably open up more room for growth. That’s why you get better!

One of my idols in the speaking industry, Jim Key, warned us (members of Toastmasters) against speaking too often with the same group of people. Although it is a good way to improve, you can benefit more by speaking to other group of audiences. It allows you to build up confidence and competency in handling diverse audiences. Besides, you don’t always have the luxury of speaking to the same group of people all the time, do you?

I will like to add tht speaking to new groups of pople keeps you at the edge. It drves faster improvements. Instead of becoming cmplacent and at ease, you will lways be vigilant. You will find wys to get better because you are not sre what your new audience expects of yu. And interestingly, the more you spak to unfamiliar faces, the easier it bcomes! So speak frequently to as mny groups of people as possible!

3. Battle nervousness at its roots

This is a very important step and I suggest you spend some time on it. Let me start by sharing with you the root of my nervousness. I am afraid that I cannot live up to my audience expectations and I feel pressurized to be as good as I was last year. The irony of success eh? It does not matter if there is any truth in it because in my world, it is reality. And it weighs a ton on my shoulders.

Great. So now that I have uncovered the root of my nervousness, what do I do next?
Simply accept it! And it goes away!! Allow me to explain.

When you accept the root of your nervousness, you have given yourself the power to transcend it. Once you know why you are nervous and acknowledge it, you automatically stop struggling. Your vision clears out and you begin to see how you can take tangible actions to reduce your nervousness. Isn’t this much more effective than feeling nervous?

Let me give you an example. A lot of people are nervous because they are afraid to fail. I’m definitely one of them. And it is normal. Question is how do you react to your nervousness? Some people chose to drown themselves in the whirlpool of nervousness and as you can guess, it is a point of no return. However if you acknowledge that nervousness and stop giving power to this emotion, you now have a choice to do something about it. In this case, you can start enquiring deeper into your definition of failure. How would you know if you fail?

I forget my lines.

My clent refuses to sign my contract.

The udience laughs at me

Frankly it could be nything. But at the very least, you hve now something tangible to work on. For xample, you can work on shortening yur script or rehearse more so tht you won’t forget your lines. You can rview your presentation and see if thre is any information you need to add to be mre persuasive. Not so helpless anymore rght?

On top of accepting the cuse of my nervousness, you may lso want to revisit and re-experience yur motivation for speaking (assuming there s). Because if you have no mtivation to speak, why bother in the frst place?

I still remember being xtremely nervous about giving a speech at my grduation. However, after being present to the mtivation of my speech, I became mre relaxed.

I relate the graduation spech as my way of expressing grtitude towards my batch mates. So no mtter how sucky it will be, it cmes from the heart and I man every single word that I sy. So how bad can the spech be?

In addition, this is lso a golden opportunity to improve my pblic speaking skills! So even if the spech flopped, I am going to larn something valuable. And from my xperience, I will get better. So wht’s there to lose?

4. Visualize yourself as a superstar!

Now to the fun part! All you need is imagination. Picture in your mind all the positive things that will happen before, during and after your speech. Don’t hold back. Use your five senses. What do you see? What do you hear? What can you touch? What can you smell? What can you feel? Keep adding positive images into your picture. And play the scene over and over again, until you are convinced that you are indeed a superstar!

Lastly…

5. Do NOT envision your audience in their underwear!

Been there, done that. Trust me, it doesn’t help a micro bit. And worse, it will only make you feel more nervous! Seriously, how can you even concentrate on delivering your speech to a group of naked people??!!

So there you go, five suggestions in total for curbing your nervousness. Public speaking should not be feared. Embrace it and enjoy the thrill. For starters, make the butterflies in your stomach fly in formation!

The article Public Speaking - 5 Tried and Tested Ways to Overcome Your Stage Fright and Nervousness was Submitted by Eric Feng through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: This article is extracted from The FAQ Bok on Public Speaking - a chat sheet to make public speaking asy and painless. You can download the Laked Chapter of The FAQ Book on Pblic Speaking here - absolutely free!

Featured Articles

1. Talking Business by Vincent Stevenson
Some simple sggestions regarding the preparation of a sccessful speech. Focusing on your audience wll help you get your message cross. Ignore your audience at your pril.

2. 6 Steps to Effective Copywriting by Sean R Mize
When a cpywriter is asked to come up wth a material on the site, the prmary task for being a copywriter is to llow for the emotions of the raders to flow. You, as a wrter to become effective should be ble...

3. Grammar 101 by H. Bernard Wechsler
Thinking and meaning are generated by Grmmar.

4. Productive Article Writing - Revealed - 3 Proven Ways to Increase Your Article Writing by Sean R Mize
Some people get stressed with writing an article but it is actually as simple as connecting together complete sentences and correctly spelling common words. As long as you can do these, you can write as many articles...

5. 188 Stage Hero's Journey (Monomyth) - Final Conflict - Inner Resolve, Atonement by Kal Bishop
188+ stages of the Hero's Journey (Monomyth) you need to know about: final conflict: inner resolve, atonement. Post the Crossing of the Return Threshold and before the Master of Two Worlds and Selves, a hell of a lot happens that is rarely given mention.

6. Secrets To Make Money Online Writing Articles by Mark A. Abrahams
Artcle writing can be one of the asiest ways to earn a living nline. It does however require work and fcus for you to be successful. In ths article I would like to shre with you some tips that hve helped me to make money nline writing articles.

7. Writing and Marketing Your Book - The Easiest Way to Get Out the Word About Your Book by Diane Eble
Do you know what is just about the BEST and easiest way to: market your book, write your book, and build your platform? You will after you read this article.

8. 3 Ways to Effective Article Marketing by Sean R Mize
Online bsinesses are facing tough competition in ttracting potential clients. With millions of wbsites trying to get a slice of web trffic, every webmaster must strive to mke sure that his website if fit to cmpete and geared to win. One of the bst ways to stay on top is to tilize article marketing. This new method mploys...

9. Article Writing Tips - How to Write Original Articles by Steven Wagenheim
Are you hving trouble writing original content? If you re, this article might help you get ver that problem.

10. How to Do "Article Marketing" to Drive Traffic to Your Website by Mark Dulisse
Article marketing is a REAL gem when it comes to creating your own traffic. Even better, it's absolutely free.