Do you tend to feel anxious when you’re asked to present or speak in front of your entire class? It’s happened to all of us.
Public speaking can be difficult, even for the people who seem confident. It feels like hundreds of eyes are staring at you, waiting for you to mess up.
We feel this way for many reasons, such as having a fear of embarrassment or failure, having too little to say, or forgetting what you wanted to say about your presentation, but there are ways to make public speaking less scary.
One way to think about it is that you’re not the only one that’s presenting, so your peers are just as nervous as you, and they may not even be paying attention because of that. Your teacher’s opinion is all that really matters, so present to the teacher.
And if you are the only one presenting, as terrified as you may be, don’t worry too much about it. Excessive worrying will only cause you to stress yourself out and make you more nervous.
So, instead of thinking about everything that could go wrong, think about everything that could go right. The more you see your own success, the less you’ll worry about the little things.
But how do you mentally prepare yourself for a presentation?
Well, firstly, don’t procrastinate on your assignment and make sure you get the presentation done first so you don’t worry about the presentation itself. That way, you can focus more on understanding the topic you’re presenting.
One other way to prepare yourself is to present to yourself or to one or two other people you’re comfortable with, if you’d like feedback on your performance.
And if you’re still afraid you’re going to forget what to say, there’s nothing wrong with writing a little script for yourself. It doesn’t have to be super detailed either, you could just include the main points in case you lose your train of thought.
If you tend to be a stuttering mess when you start speaking, remember that it’s okay to slow down and take a second for yourself to breathe. You do not need to get through the presentation with incredible speed.
But what do you do if something does go wrong?
The best favor you could do for yourself is to keep going. So you made a mistake, we all do, but the sooner you let it go, the easier it will be to get back on track.
Another thing to keep in mind is that your peers might not even notice if you make a mistake, so don’t let them know you made it to begin with. What I mean by this is that no one else knows how you wanted to present but you.
And of course, the best thing you can do is learn from your prior experiences so you can continue to grow. So, if you made a mistake, don’t let it get you down, but rather, think about what you could have done better to incorporate it into your next presentation.
