Why is Presenting so Stressful

Hi Sandeeps11,

Thanks for your question. Confidence is the key to easy presentations. Believing in your abilities. It's not something that you can buy, but it is something that you can give yourself.

Confidence comes from knowing that you created it yourself, and so you can keep it. Confidence comes from changing the thought patterns you choose.

You can look in the mirror before a presentation and say positive messages to yourself with emotion. You could say

"I believe in myself, It's easy to get my point across, I'm a great communicator, I respect myself and other people respect me, I am confident, capable and strong, I let go of all my fear, I let go of all stress, I can cope with anything"

I hope this helps

I stutter every time I present in front of people, no matter how prepared I am.

I really really hate presenting.

Can you visualise yourself being a confident speaker?

Yes, preparation can help you to reduce the stress of presenting in front of others. As per my experience, a preparation make your mind about how to convey your message, how to overcome your fear, on what important point you should have to stick upon. This will turn your mind in thinking and you will not think of fear, you will just think upon how to make your audience interested in you. It will boost your confidence. And at the end of your presentation, you will find that you have delivered your effective presentation without any fear..

Hey!

I have to agree with the fact that preparation and "knowing your subject" helps a great deal to prepare for giving a great presentation.

However - to reduce the anxiety; here is another method that I have tried several times and really helped me:

Think about the worst possible outcome that a speech could get you into. Now write that down! It's important to really write it down. Your mind can trick you too easily when you are just thinking about a topic. When it's written down however, its in front of you. It cannot change shapes. That's a very powerful way to look at fear.
Next, think about your audience. What do they want from you? Do they want you to succeed? Why could they want you to succeed?
Write that down again!
And now think about the best possible outcome. What if you absolutely nailed your speech. Maybe you won't. But what if you did? Really picture the way it would look and how you would feel about it. Write it down in detail!

Now take a step back and look at all the stuff you wrote down. How does it make you feel? Writing things down and organizing your thoughts is a powerful way to put 'fear' into perspective. After all it's just a feeling


PS: I am right now working on a startup to help people overcome their fear of public speaking. We are currently looking for people who want to try out early versions of our platform - If you're interested in trying out what we do I would love to hear from you guys!

Hi,
I agree a good way to remove and analyze ones fears is to write them down.
When you take them down in black and white they may not be so scary.

In the same way write down what Public speaking is about.
Make a mind map of the whole public speaking situation.

A little apprehension is fine and shows you are human and with feeling.
Simply put presentations require hard work and preparation is the key to better and compelling performance.

You are usually putting a lot of preparation into a short space of time. You then place yourself into an arena where you are hoping that you can communicate coherently. There are a number of issues that can trigger your anxiety from your personality traits, preparation, knowing your subject, knowing your audience, knowing the location etc. I think its more stressful for the shy, socially anxious introverts.

Rehearse your content and rehearse your emotion that you want to portray - usually confidence. Use breathing techniques throughout your presentation to control your anxiety. Ensure you have good control of these techniques well before the presentation. They are commonly used in hypnotherapy, progressive relaxation etc. For more information: http://clinicalhypnotherapy-cardiff.co. ... echniques/

Consider some presentions skills like loud voice projection, pacing, eye contact and continuity. Structure your presentation (intro, main, ending), consider use of visual aids (or any other aids) to balance heavy word content. Make use of any items that may help you personally e.g. glass of water if you get dry mouth.

This is such a good question.

A lot of people do not find it stressful and an even bigger number have dealt with the stress.

The stress comes from the perceived enormity of the consequences.

What if I fail?

“End of the world!!!

What happens if I forget stuff?

Total embarrassment!!

The thought of so much pain just paralyses us and we do everything we can to avoid it.

And the fundamental issue comes from thatwe seem to have this idea that we should be able to go from total novice to brilliant orator, overnight.

And that just isn’t true.

All we need to concentrate on is to do a little bit better than before.

(Baby steps they are sometimes called)

There is plenty of material around but the most important thing is to listen only to those people that have been through the fear, the nervousness, the paralysis, the embarrassment and have come out the other side.

I am one of those people so if you register (free) of www.feartofame.com you will get a series of tips that will certainly help.

Sandeeps11 wrote:Why is Presenting so Stressful...or a preparation can reduce the stress?

I love this quote.

"Everyone has the will to win, but only those with the will to prepare will win."

The importance of preparation can never be overstated.