So… how do I stop feeling nervous?

…the quick answer is –  I can’t just stop feeling nervous. So, a more useful question might be, do we want to get rid of nerves altogether?

I’m sure we can all recall a moment when we have had to stand up in front of a room of people, whether for a work presentation or maybe for a wedding speech. The hairs on our arms raise up, our heart is in our throat, our breathing rate goes for a jog….the list goes on.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could stop all of this and make our lives easier? If we did achieve that, then what might that speaker look like?..it could be… very robotic.

This is something that often comes up during our presentation skills course which I for one always encourage a conversation around. As trainers, the way we like to think about it is, that we don’t/can’t get rid of nerves, but what we can train ourselves to do is to help control them.

So how do we do this? This is where the advice can get very individual but here are a few of the key changes to consider:

Give the body what it needs

Simple right!?

It can be as simple as remembering to have a glass of water or have a quick walk to release some nervous energy beforehand but could also include a very quick breathing exercise to settle our minds and bodies.

A really easy one to try is breathing in for 3 seconds and out for 6 and do this 3 times (there are many variations on this, so have a google of breathing exercises and find something that you personally like). Deep, slow breaths are a great way to calm down.

Depending on the person however, you may want to do the opposite of this and give yourself a confidence/energy boost.

Dale Carnegie said that before he went into interviews he would put his arms in the air as if he had won a race before he entered the building. The idea here is we are creating our own cheerleader for ourselves and telling ourselves:

“You’ve already won”

Own the feeling

This one is less physical, but the nice thing is it’s invisible so no one knows you are doing it.

For instance, if I am shakey and my heart rate is racing, it’s just about naming what is happening in your body whether it’s physical or mental.

I know this thing is happening to us, accept it, it’s there, and that is ok, put it on the invisible mind shelf and carry on.

This one can take a few times to take effect but it’s a really good one to own what you are feeling. It’s not about trying to run away from these things it’s about embracing them so you can move forward to where you want to put your focus.

Talk, don’t “present”

For me, the presentations that I remember the most are the ones that didn’t really feel like a presentation, they felt like a conversation.

One of the pillars I often offer to delegates is that as presenters, we want to remove the wall between the speaker and the audience as quickly as possible.

The idea around this is that if they are part of our presentation it will be far more engaging, and take the pressure off us as speakers as we don’t need to do all the talking.

The chemical produced in our bodies (adrenaline) that makes us feel nervous is the same chemical released that makes us feel excited. We can look at this in many ways but I always think that’s something worth remembering.

So don’t be a robot, be you, it’s far more interesting.