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Panic Panic Panic

930 views 22 replies 17 participants last post by  duztbunnie00 
#1 ·
I am nervous. I am perhaps the worst public speaker ever-- my mind freezes when I am in front of an audience and end up reading off of my notes completely, I can't think, I speak too fast, I shake... all of the bad stuff. When I am waiting for my turn to present, I tell myself to stay calm but I get more and more frantic as it approaches and when my name is called I can literally feel my heart pounding.

I have two presentations tomorrow. Needless to say, I AM PANICKING!!

Do any of you have PRACTICAL advice for someone like me who is deathly afraid of public speaking? Have any of you struggled with it before but have overcome it and can provide some words of wisdom?

Any and all help would be appreciated. THANK YOU!!
 
#2 ·
project your voice. make sure every corner of the room hears your voice.
smile! :D
be calm, pretend you are talking to your friend.

I used to be in the same situation as you. But after thinking that "this is going to end in like 5 minutes... 5 minutes of my whole LIFE. Not a huge deal. Everything is planned and good to go." Speaking publicly has become easier for me :D

good luck!!!
 
#3 ·
i used to be deathly afraid of public speaking. so, in high school - i joined the 'speech team' to overcome that fear. it worked and here is what i learned from speech team.

practice, practice, practice. the more you practice, the easier public speaking is. even today, if i don't practive in advance, then the nerves hit, but if i practice, no nerves.

speak slowly. in your mind you should feel like you are speaking slower than normal. trust me, you aren't. and enunciate your words.

project your voice to the back of the room.

make eye contact.

take deep breaths.

and good luck!!!
 
#4 ·
I was the same too and joined the drama class in high school.... that was a looooong time ago.
Now I have to give presentations all the time for work... try 30-60 min presentations in front of scientific know it alls with a 10 min grilling/question time at the end of your presentation! I hate it with a passion but I get through it. Like Zoki said, practice makes perfect. It helps to write everything you want to say down and going through it over and over again so when you're at the front you've already done it a million times and it's a breeze.

:gl
 
#7 ·
Practice, practice, practice...know your stuff forwards and backwards, inside out and outside in, and then again. And again. Even if you do freeze up or get off track, you can always fill in with some random info and find your way back. Good luck :)
 
#8 ·
I agree with everyone's advice! Definitely speak slow. Watch your hand gestures...use them rarely, you don't want them to be the focus (unless, of course, you have a visual aid as part of your presentation). Like someone else said, be comfortable- talk like you are talking with a friend. You will probably hear your voice shake, but don't let it psyche you out...no one else can hear it but you. Keep moving on. Take a breath if you forgot where you are, but no longer than 4 seconds. What I do for moot court is write down my entire argument (b/c of the same fear you have that I will forget it all once I'm there)..I mean verbatim what I will say in front of the judges. But I memorize it first. In my notes, I bold/caps/underline the main word or topic in each point and put that in a text box so that I can refer back to it easily if I get lost. If you are nervous about reading off your sheet, just write a few main words that will trigger your points. You don't want to read off your sheets b/c you should try to maintain eye contact. I always get distracted when looking at multiple people's eyes, so I either concentrate on one person (if the audience is 3 or less), or I move back and forth while concentrating on their eyebrows or nose...it looks to them like I am making eye contact, but instead I am pretending so that my focus can be what I am saying. Just breathe. That's important.
 
#9 ·
pretend you are speaking to just one person, instead of an entire room.:magwink

pick one person, make eye contact....

shift your eyes to another person.....and then shift eye contact again...(goes on and on)

i don't know if i made sense:shake (the trick is to convince yourself you are talking to just one person at a time)

...practice, practice, practice!!!


goodluck!!!:D
 
#11 ·
try not to make eye contact with anyone
like when i make public speeches, i ALWAYS scan the audience slowly while i'm talking, but i never make eye contact with anyone because that will make me feel nervous

edit: i guess my method is completely different from evie's
 
#14 ·
If you have powerpoint slides, between slides, take a sip of water. It gives the audience a chance to process what you're saying, and when you start again, you'll be more relaxed.

Deliberately talk slowly. Make sure that you are not fidgetting with your hands.

Remember that the audience can only see maybe 15% of your nervousness. And really, they don't care - everyone gets a bit nervous!

I'm terrified of presentations too, and I had to give one last week. Those tips definitely helped me.
 
#15 · (Edited)
I used to be deathly afraid of public speaking.

In college I took speech because it was a requirement for my major. There was someone in my class who had a stutter. Just thinking of how he must have felt having to get up and give a speech in front of all of us made me feel like maybe my problems weren't so bad. Think of some of the hardships other people have to go through when public speaking and how fortunate you are and that might help?

After speech, I took debate in order to work on my public speaking. It was SO HARD. I was so worried about the quality of the content of my debate that I didn't have time to think about speaking in front of my peers.

Although I had one of the worst fears of public speaking out there, I have now overcome it and I am a high school teacher (off right now b/c of a snow cancellation - yay!). Speaking in front of a room full of high schoolers used to be a thought that made me want to die, but now I'm more than okay with it.

I guess getting over my fear involved forcing myself to do exactly what I feared the most, so after tomorrow is over, I encourage you to take classes that involve a large amount of public speaking so that maybe you can someday overcome the fear.
 
#16 ·
^^oddly enough, at least for me, I find that teaching is a whole different animal than public speaking. I'm a music theory tutor and lead review sessions for my students every so often...and it's a lot more chill than if I had to go read a paper at the Society for Music Theory or something :jumping
 
#17 ·
Remember that your audience WANTS to hear what you have to say, and more importantly, they WANT you to succeed. Think about how you feel when you are watching someone give a presentation or speech.
Like everyone else said, relax and breathe. Make sure you know your material. Most of the time, you have a relationship with the people to whom you're presenting. focus on that. If you are presenting to complete strangers, assume you're talking with friends.
You'll do great. :)
-P
 
#22 ·
Sorry for bumping this back up but I just wanted to say you guys helped tremendously :) The first presentation I did was a psych debate and I got an A on it. Second one was an Econ presentation on the economic history of Brazil and I got an A as well!

Now if only I could get the same on my exams.... :cry

Anyway just wanted to say thanks!! :D
 
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