Public speaking is a real challenge for lots of people. We all know that it’s not easy to speak in front of a large gathering. It’s very common to freeze on stage, feel anxiety, and get stressed before stepping on the stage either for a speech or a presentation. Mostly stage fear is due to lack of confidence, low self-esteem, and also the fear of getting embarrassed.
Fortunately, this is a very common issue and various tips can help you overcome your stage fear.
Practice-
Practice is the key to perfection. Public speaking is a skill and it can be learned. No one gets this by birth. Practicing any skill can make you confident about the topic you will be speaking about on the stage. So before your presentation or speech make sure you do enough practice about the topic in front of your friends and even better in front of the mirror.
Stay relaxed-
Don’t take too much stress about your performance. Take a deep breath, meditate and drink plenty of water to calm yourself down. A relaxed mind can perform better than a stressed mind.
Visualization-
Visualization is a technique that takes you to the future and lets you show the results. Most successful people like athletes, actors, public speakers visualize their success and they imagine getting that expected response from the audience. This fills them with confidence. You can try this as well.
But don’t only try visualizing success but also failure. Because if you will be ready for the worst then it will be easier for you to perform and accept if it happens. Embrace the failure and trust me it will get you much relief.
Don’t let people know about your mistakes-
Mistakes are evident but don’t make it too obvious for your listeners. Keep them to yourself. Because the audience mostly doesn’t notice silly mistakes because they are looking into the bigger picture. So let the bygones be bygones. Don’t share your mistakes with your audience.
Know your audience-
Before giving any kind of presentation it is always better to know your audience. If you will not be aware of the kind of people you will be speaking to, it is obvious that you will have anxiety. But if you know your audience then it will become easier for you to relate with them and build a connection while speaking.
Know your topic-
Whichever topic you are going to speak about, make sure you know about it well. Otherwise, it will be a reason for you to face embarrassment. Do proper research and make pointers of everything so that you don’t miss anything while speaking and you can answer the counter questions.
Arrive early-
Make sure you arrive early at the location so that you get enough time to analyze everything before your performance.
Stage fear is a real issue but nothing is impossible if you put genuine effort. Accept your mistakes and learn from them. Public speaking is an art and anyway, art gets better with practice.
