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How to Calm Your Nerves Before a Big Presentation
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Observe, Accept, and Reframe
Recognizing and accepting the fact you're being nervous before an important presentation will help you more than trying to fight those anxious feelings. Resistance creates even more angst.
Once you do this, you can slowly shift perspective and try to reframe the situation in a way that favors you.
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Focus on Your Body
Instead of being swept in the spiral of negative thoughts like 'What if I fail? What will they think of me? try to be aware of your physical sensations: how your heart beats, how the air fills your lungs, the heat and sweat you feel.
This will anchor you in the present moment and calm your nerves.
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Tips For Calming Your Nerves
- Make sure you get a good night’s sleep, that you're hydrated and that you had a good meal before.
- Be careful with your caffeine intake before a big presentation so that your heart rate isn’t already elevated.
- Strike a power pose. Research shows it can shift your mood and make you feel more confident.
- Own the space. If you can, get to the room early and really imagine owning it.
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Prepare a Great Opening
- Organize your thoughts, determine the flow of the presentation and practice transitions.
- Prepare and practice the opening of your speech. This will set the tone for the entire presentation. Start with something positive (for example, "I love being here...")
- If you can engage your audience, make sure you check in with them and their views in order to buy time.
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Manage Your Nerves Along the Way
- If you make a mistake, keep going.
- Prepare a list of possible questions, in case you're worried people will ask you something you won't know how to answer.
- If you're asked something you're not really sure about, use a response that goes along the lines of “That’s a good question. I don’t have the answer right now, but I’ll get back to you on that.” And maybe then turn the question back to the audience.
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Key Ideas
Trick your brain into calm
- Become aware of your safety and breathing. Your fight or flight response may be in overdrive.
- Take note of five things you can see, four things you can hear, three ...
Using affirmations
Remind yourself how awesome you are with affirmations. Write down affirmations that remind you of your capabilities and strengths and keep them somewhere you can find them if nerves strike.
Another suggestion is to keep a file of praise, awards, and other evidence of how good you are at your job an read them when you are struggling with a confidence crisis.
Get clear about your feelings
Take a moment to really analyze what you’re feeling and strategize for that.
Can you reframe negative feelings, like fear, into something more positive, like anticipation? If not, remind yourself that it’s perfectly normal to be nervous before a high-stakes situation.
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Reframe those nerves as excitement
Try embracing your sweaty palms and racing heartbeat as signs of excitement. This reappraisal of anxiety can help stop nerves from overwhelming you.
Encouraging excitement can prime...
Don’t make it all about you
Make it about the ideas you want to share.
Take the focus off of yourself and putting it instead onto the valuable information you are going to deliver. That way, the speech becomes an exchange of ideas and it creates a place of passion and purpose.
Don’t obsess over each word
Oftentimes, the reason that we mess up is that we start paying too much attention to the details.
When you’re speaking and you’re trying to get the point across, think about the 3 points you want to get across. This way, you'll focus on the outcome of what you’re trying to say rather than every word coming out of your mouth.
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Stressing about sleep
Before a stressful work event, we tend to worry about what will happen if we don’t sleep well:
- We worry that we’ll be physically tired.
- We worry that ...
Sleep mistakes
... we make when it comes to sleeping well before a big day:
- We try too hard to sleep and we end up making it harder to fall asleep.
- We overestimate the negative consequences of poor sleep.
Sleep restriction
It's a technique for improving the quality of your sleep by using the power of Sleep Drive (the body’s natural need for sleep). Sleep Drive is built during the day: the longer you’re awake the stronger your need for sleep.
Sleep Restriction temporarily restricts the quantity of your sleep so that you’re awake longer and therefore build up more Sleep Drive.