How can I not be so nervous when making speeches?

Question

I always say to myself I won't be nervous and I'm usually not right up until 30 seconds before I start.

I don't think I specifically have a fear of speaking in front of a small class because I don't mind besides the fact that I'm get so nervous right when it starts

Answer 1

Almost everyone who goes up to do a speech will *ALSO* be nervous -- so don't be hard on yourself. I use to get so nervous that I had to hold on to something so I wouldn't shake!
Now, I am a "natural" at it, lol.

The best thing you can start off by doing is *really* knowing your topic. The better prepared you are, the less chance you have to make mistakes. So, preapre yourself and practice talking aloud to friends, family, or a mirror.

Keep it simple. Prepare numbered notecards that have KEY WORDS only. The keyword is a prompt to let you know in what order you will be talking about the subject. Again, number your cards in case you drop them.

Make sure you allot a certain time for each notecard. Maybe each notecard should be -- let's say --- 2 minutes worth of talking? A minute on the subject/area?

When you are going up there, never say "I"m nervous." Go up there, smile and say hello and introduce yourself in a friendly, smiling way. This is your notecard #1.

Your last notecard should be asking the class if they have any questions (if that is appropriate), and/or THANKING everyone for the opportunity to share with them.

I had trouble with keeping time, so I took a mini-clock up with me and put it on the desk, so that I didn't get nervous and talk to long.

Well, good luck and I know you will do great!

Answer 2

I'm not quite sure why, but strolling out in front of an audience has never been a hard thing for me.

It may be because you deny to yourself that you're nervous. Don't do that! Emotions are there to tell you how you're feeling; there's nothing to be ashamed of. So you're nervous; everyone is nervous at some time or another.

Acknowledge your anxiety far before you actually go on stage. Talk with other people about it; have a laugh!

That is the fundamental thing; try to enjoy what you're doing when you give the speech. Even if you're not the kind to do it, try and insert a few witticisms or puns just for the heck of it; but make sure they're funny first and try them out on other people beforehand. :)

Just remember; YOU WILL BE FINE. There is nothing to worry about if you're not making problems for yourself to worry about. Walking in front of an audience is no different from walking in front of a few people.

Try not to look at any specific person; that can be nerve-wracking. Instead, just let your eyes glaze over and flit across the audience every now and then. You can make the audience think you're looking at them without actually doing it. XD

There's nobody except yourself up there; don't take that as an excuse to be nervous. This is YOUR five minutes of fame; YOU are the star. Use those few precious minutes wisely.

Talk to the audience like you would your friends. Don't memorize a script; just a few cardinal points that you can elaborate on. Sometimes practice can be a good thing; maybe just before you go to bed, if you're not too tired, just shut your eyes and imagine the audience, and then speak your words to the air.

Overall; enjoy yourself. Nothing will go wrong if you're enjoying yourself, and, even if it does, it will be funny. No-one's going to shoot you for making a little mistake; just continue. Have confidence in yourself, and the world will be at your feet.

Answer 3

The most important thing you can do is to relax. It is perfectly normal to be a little nervous before a speech. All speakers, even experienced ones, get some kind of nerves before speeches, so don't think you are alone there. What I do is take a deep breath before I am introduced, or as people are settling down in their seats. Take a second before you start speaking, then begin. Do not have anything in your hands or grip the podium or lectern, for this will make the audience think you are nervous (chances are that if you have something in your hand, you will start fiddling with it, or gripping the podium like a life preserver). As you speak, concentrate on your speech, and making good eye contact with your audience. It is OK to pause during the speech, for pauses can be effective tool in a speech. If you forget something, or if you miss something (when you are doing speeches with visual aids), don't worry about it, just keep going. Something that can help too is that just think that by doing a speech, you are conquering what is considered people's biggest fear (public speaking). Also, practice your speech in front of a mirror beforehand. The more comfortable you are with your speech content, the more confident you will be when you give the speech. Good luck!

Answer 4

Don't worry about the nervousness unless it's actually preventing you from making a speech -- or affecting your performance.

If it is giving you problems (besides internal ones (-:), remember the reason why you are speaking: to give something to the audience. Maybe you are giving them important information, or helping them celebrate an important occasion, or just giving them some entertainment. All these things are really important, and that's why you are there.

When you are beginning your career as a speaker, you should write out your speech, rehearse it and have an outline or a cheat sheet when you give the speech. You might even consider rehearsing it in front of a friend or two.

As you get better with practice, you'll find you can wing it -- although I always find it's nice to have an outline of the important points I want to cover.

Also, a speech doesn't have to be speaking -- you can sing, you can show charts, you can show a movie -- you can even give a quiz and ask for audience participation. Sometimes this helps make your information more interesting to the audience, and it also gives you a break.

Good luck, and have fun with it! (-: You know, this is the second speech question I've answered today. End of semester already, is it?

Answer 5

There are a bunch of things you can do in order to tackle being nervous when making speeches. Here are a few things that have helped me in the past:

1) Never look at the people directly. This does not mean that you should be staring somewhere else all the time, but try looking somewhere close above or next to their heads.
2) Ask yourself what possibly could go wrong - the worst case scenario, and project yourself into that situation (before the speech!). Is it really that bad? Assuming that avoiding the speech is not an option, try to stop caring about what others think about you.
3) Find something small to fiddle around with (in your pocket preferrably).
4) Before the speech, look into the mirror and say to yourself something like "I can do this!". An english teacher once gave me this advice, and - as stupid as it may sound - it actually has helped me...

Hope these hints might have helped you :-)

Greetz!

Answer 6

First of all, if you are a very social person, you shouldn't have much trouble at all. Have confidence. You know more about the subject than anyone else in the room, and you are simply telling people what you know. There is no need to be nervous especially if you prepare well ahead of time.

Also, maybe get a drink of water before your speech. It really depends how long the speach is. I'm guessing you are a student, so it is most likely that you haven't given that many speeches before. My advice is to join a debate team. Policy debate was the way I got over my fear of speeking to an audience (and because it's debate with a two-person team, there isn't as much pressure). It's very fun. Most schools and colleges have debate teams. It will really give you a lot of practice.

Answer 7

Don't worry about being nervous, it's a relatively normal feeling for most people performing in front of the public. Nobody is judging you on how nervous you are. And the more public speaking you do, the less nervous you'll be, if even never completely nerve free.

The best defense is a strong attack. Know your subject well and don't worry about what you don't know; no one knows everything. For what you don't know you can always just offer an opinion based on what you do know or you can just tell your questioner that you don't know the answer to the question.

Practice your speech as many times as is reasonable prior to show time. Remember to number your slides, if you use them, and know how the equipment works that you will be using for your presentation. No matter how high tech you go for your presentation, always keep the traditional 3 x5 or 4 x6 notecards on hand in case all the equipment fails.

Follow these tips and you will do fine.

Answer 8

it has too much answers for your hot question
I cant read all of these so if I replay idea of someone please forgive me.
Yes I sometimes had problem like you. I tried many techniques but they didn't help much. But this problem suddenly became nothing since I read a Buddhism book. I think:
The problem is you are the only person who really worry about your speech. When you look at the other's speech, what you look at is only the good side but not the bad side. You can easily forgive the speakers' mistakes. Even if you are strict to them, you can do nothing. Only complain something and then forget all and no more. So after they finished their speech the only thing you feel is how fast and easily they performed. Only you have the problem and this problem is caused by yourself.
Let's look. Why you must be nervous? Who are you? What is your speech? All are really nothing. 100 years later, maybe not much like that :d, you will become nothing. Also all belong to you, include your speech will become nothing. If you make serious mistakes, if your speech is really awful, time pass, no, short time pass, and all your problems will become nothing. Who will complain about these? Exactly no one. So why you must be nervous because of "nothing"?

Answer 9

I had the same problem when I was in school and had to do speeches. If I couldnt get myself to stop worrying about it, which i usually did worry about it a lot, theres a couple of other things that I tried. If making eye contact while you're speaking makes you more nervous, try looking right over a persons head so that way it looks like you're making contact but you're not really and maybe not as nervous. Another thing that helped me a little is, right before you start, try thinking of something that makes you mad. Usually if I could do that, I was usually too mad to worry about being nervous lol. Just not mad enough that you want to tell somebody off or anything like that lol. Hope this helped.

Answer 10

Wow, doesn't sound like you need allot of help! I'm impressed that your as good as you are when it comes to confronting speaking in public. On some Polls, it even beats Death on the worst fear list.

I've managed to beat it two different ways. The first was in my religion, as a Jehovah's Witness, we do not separate children from adults and when we have Ministerial School, we have speeches to perform on subjects that are assigned and we do the research on from the Bible. So, over the years it really helps to learn to get up in front of people and feel comfortable in that environment. After all, you've been doing it most of your life. Another way, was to have a "stress word" when I did feel a bit of anxiety. Whenever I felt a knot in my muscles somewhere, I knew then that I would soon feel anxious and to stop it THERE before it got bad, so I thought of a word (just any word that you never normally use). When you start to feel the knot growing and start to feel anxious, say the word and let the stress go, just remember, NO ONE can hurt you, so what if they have a momentary thought of "what's he doing?" Remember, its a speech and you will have a certain time span to prove yourself as a speaker, its not just a 5 second thing. So, by starting out nervous, getting calm and going through your speech they will still remember the last part, where you were calm. The worst thing is someone "running" through their speech, so being relaxed and breathing is important to pacing your speech. By taking the time to breathe, you can force yourself to relax.

Hope this helps at all.

Answer 11

Your nervousness when giving speeches before a crowd is quite common. Basically, it is a form of social anxiety. It stems from a fear or worry that your audience won't like your performance or that your performance (speech) will elicit a negative response from the crowd.

While this explanation sounds a bit tragic, there is a good way to overcome this fear or anxiety. The best remedy for your problem is to make multiple (several per week if possible) presentations or speeches in front of a large audience. You might join Toastmasters or some other public speaking group. If you make this effort, you can be assured that your public speaking anxiety level will decline as you become more accustomed to making speeches before a crowd of people.

In addition to making numerous speeches within a close time span, you also need to know your material or subject matter. Standing before an audience, and not being familiar with your topic can easily spell disaster. To assist in knowing your subject, you might do a few rehearsals in front of friends, family members, or even an imaginary audience. Know that practice always improves performance. Also, having a few coping mechanisms such as humor are almost always helpful in reducing anxiety; however, keep in mind that some minimal anxiety is good as it compels you to do a good job. Remember that It is only a problem when it precludes you from performing or attaining your objective (in your case, making a speech).

Good luck in your public speaking endeavors. I think if you use the above recommended methods, you'll be very satisfied with the outcome.

Cheers!