How to Beat Panic When You Present
If you panic at the thought of making a presentation, you are not alone. Several studies have shown that public speaking is the thing that people fear most – more than snakes, flying or even death. That means that, at a funeral, most people would rather be in the coffin than making the eulogy!
How can you get over this fear? Here are some tips:
Get there early. Make sure you get familiar with the room. Stand where you are going to give your presentation until you begin to feel relaxed standing there. Try out the audiovisual equipment you will be using.
Introduce yourself to as many members of the audience as you can before you start. This helps turn the audience into a group of friendly faces rather than a wall of strangers.
Whilst you are doing this, pick out a couple of ‘friendly faces’. During the presentation, maintain regular eye-contact with your ‘new friends’.
Keep a photo of a child, a spouse or a pet near you. Look at it from time to time for reassurance.
Breathe deeply and rhythmically. This will bring oxygen into your system, relax your throat and help you breath more slowly.
Act confidently even if you are not feeling confident. You will find yourself becoming confident.
Wear a rubber band around your wrist. Snap it if you are feeling negative thoughts.
Remember that it will soon be over. Twenty minutes is not very long in your lifetime!
Tags: audience, audiovisual equipment, coffin, eye contact, friendly faces, lifetime, negative thoughts, new friends, oxygen, Panic, people, photo, presentation, public speaking, reassurance, rubber band, snakes, twenty minutes
July 19th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
That topic is really important to us, because it scary to stand in front of audience and introduce yourself.
So I like to thank you to focus about it, and giving a lot of advice
April 14th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Nice topic.I have suffered panic attacks again and again. especially during testimony times.i ended up leaving out the main message.