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3 Ways to Overcome Anxiety When Presenting

3 Ways to Overcome Anxiety When Presenting

I’ve often covered the anxiety created by presentations and how to deal with the problem. We know that the reaction we have to the stress causes us to look less than what we would ideally like to portray.

I have listed some alternatives that you might find useful if not at least interesting. I do not purport that they will all suit or work for everyone but there might be one that makes a difference for you. If that is the case then that may be all you will ever need. Here’s hoping that one of them works for you:Anxiety1

Why me?

Why should people listen to you? Well, because you are the expert. Of all the people that are there you are the most experienced on the subject. You know better than anyone else what has to be said and who is best to say it. Remind yourself that you are the expert and that people are looking to you for guidance.

Meet and Greet

One way to ‘trick’ the subconscious mind is to meet as many of the people as possibly in a ‘one on one’ situation before standing in front of them all. This means that when you do stand up in front of all the people that they already have a first impression of you and therefore they are not assessing you.

Shift the Focus

Why are the people there? Certainly not for you. They are there for their own reasons, to gain information, to learn something new, to satisfy their curiosity. There are lots of reasons why they are there but I doubt if anyone will ever be there to solely hear you. So shift the focus off you and onto the reasons why people are in front of you. Put the emphasis on the ’message’ you are delivering, not yourself. This takes the pressure of the subconscious mind thinking that it is being judged, it’s not, it’s the message being assessed.