You may be the boss who has to conduct a meeting or an employee who has to present an idea or you might even be a young activist who has to voice his/her opinion to a group of like minded people ? you might be just anyone, but stage fright is something take can people of the highest power and position to make silly mistakes under the spotlight. How to get over your nervousness while giving a speech? We do have tips for alleviating those feelings.
(1) To start with, be way before time. Leave alone the person with stage fright, even the most confident people tend to get anxious when they are late. So, instead of adding onto your already heightened fear of speaking, it is better to reach the venue way before time so as to get comfortable with the surroundings and relax your mind.
(2) If you don?t have time to rehearse your speech in front of actual people, that is your friends and family, you can stand in front of the mirror to practice your speech. You?ll know exactly where you are going wrong and how that appears to a person in the audience.
(3) Before you make your speech, you should go to the washroom to freshen up a bit. Do a few stretches and take some deep breaths. Calm your mind and think about positive things.
(4) Sometimes when you are running out of actual words or you have forgotten your next point, you may end up using fillers like ?uhms? or ?ahs?. Now how do you avoid that?
This problem is very common and can be dealt by splitting your entire speech or presentation is short breaks. Don?t try to talk too fast, maintain a certain rhythm by taking very short pauses between sentences.
(5) Some people tend to move their hands a lot when they are nervous. So it is better to rest your hands on the podium, or if there isn?t a podium there carry some index cards. And don?t keep fidgeting; don?t touch your hair or nose or clothes. Just stay natural and don?t think too much. You are much stronger than you think, which is why you are on that stage.
Being on the stage should not be too complicated or scary. You should be proud of yourself to be in the limelight. Enjoy being on that stage. That is your moment in the spotlight. Embrace it.
