Effective Ways to Overcome Speech Anxiety

Since the genesis of mankind, anxieties have always been a part of human lives. There are anxieties for the poor and weak and so they are for the rich and strong ones as well. Anxieties at the workplace have been a very common issue nowadays and people among the corporate elite are spending huge amounts of money to somehow overcome them.  People miss great opportunities, tend to lose their jobs and sometimes personal relationships as well and their life becomes more miserable due to anxiety issues.

 Many of us try to seek solutions to our anxiety via yoga, spirituality and being with friends and family. While others head towards the golf course, play some sort sports or go to long enjoyable vacation to expensive resorts. Anxiety is everywhere! But before we talk about how to get rid of it particularly when we are delivering an important presentation or speech, it is important to understand the essence of what it is all about.  

Anxiety is defined as an emotion characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil, often accompanied by nervous behavior, such as pacing back and forth, somatic complaints and rumination. (Source: Wikipedia)

Here are some of the most effective ways to overcome anxiety before or during a speech.  

1. Know Yourself Well: If you are living in a state of self-ignorance or self-delusion then this is the greatest cause of anxiety and stress. Most of us do get infatuated or be influenced by others particularly when we were children or growing up during our adolescence. We come up with personalities, role models or heroes whose impressions dwell in our subconscious and we tend to ignore our original identity and personality. We forget that God has made everyone unique with a unique fingerprint. One can learn from personalities and figures like Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, or Albert Einstein, however one cannot travel in their states of mind, leaving behind one’s very own persona.   

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses and there is absolutely no point of imitation or behaving like someone else. We are born to be unique and we are all supposed to live at least till the day when our sole and unique purpose of life served by God almighty. So it is always best to be what you ought to be as per your unique identity and set of strengths and weaknesses.

So begin working out ways to boost your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. Remember that no one is perfect! Successful people have a very strong self-belief and self-confidence. Master your subject and topic well. You have to know where you are lacking and where you are strong. Only then you will have the opportunity to live a peaceful life with no regrets and become a fluent, eloquent and anxious-free speaker.        

 2. Try to Focus: Do you know what was common among Buddha, Confucius, and Aristotle? They all were habitual to live with FOCUS in their lives. It is indeed one of the traits of world’s renowned geniuses, philosophers, spiritual leaders and successful entrepreneurs as well. Focus is the real key to success. That is why spirituality and yoga teaches us to focus to achieve salvation. So does it is true for students, teachers, professors, subject matter experts and business people all over the world.

A proverb goes that “a rolling stone gathers no moss”. People who keep wandering from one place to another never end up at their desired destination. They remain restless throughout their lives. A lot of people do this for fun and equate their childish behavior with adventurism. Adventure is good and being adventurous does make a person to explore a lot. But again one has to realize that life is limited, the energy and resources that we utilize are not infinite. Wise is the one who sets the eyes in the target and dedicate to focus at achieving that target within specified resources.

The bottom line is to be focused when you prepare your content for speech or presentation. And do as much as you can to keep your audience focused on the subject or key topic that is suppose addressed.

3. Validate the Information that you deliver: We live in a fast paced age of information and technology that has revolutionized and influenced our lives significantly. Gone are the days when people used to travel to remote places to acquire information from far off exotic lands. Now we have the internet to serve our purpose. We can always obtain information with the simple click of the hyperlink that we see in our web browsers.

But the question is that whatever information that we gather is genuine and valid or not. Where there several advantages of the information age, there are indeed certain downsides as well. Information is based on data which is again gathered by humans. Inaccuracies and poor citations in the information are common issues nowadays.  

Delivering invalid information and poorly cited facts and figures does make you feel look bad and weak in the sight of your audience. If anyone among them negates your facts or information with rational arguments and updated information, you end up simply losing the entire battle.

So it is essential to challenge and analyze your information with every possible angle. Authenticate the facts, ideas and notions before you deliver your speech.

 4. Take a Balanced Healthy Diet: Remember, that what you are is what you eat. We have a trend of eating fast food and oily recipes every now and then. People seek pleasure and satisfy their burning appetites with heavy meals that are not just bad for the health but also makes you feel dull and drowsy more often. As a consequence, we never realize what is really hindering us to speak with confidence in front of our audiences. We come well prepared, well informed and arrive on time but we feel dull and lazy due to intakes of heavy meals.

Remember, that people who eat more tend to age faster and die much earlier. They feel ashamed with their obese body appearances and tend to feel shy when they have to speak out. I have not seen many people to be frank who are obese and great confident speakers at the same time, though I am not claiming here that obese ones can never be good speakers. All I like to say here that obesity promotes dullness and laziness and people like teachers, professors, and presenters should strive to eat a balanced healthy diet as effective speech is an integral part of their profession.

It is always best to eat less (but not too less) and have a glass of your favorite juice or lemonade to make yourself feel refreshing when you go out to speak before your audience.

5. Take Sound Sleep and Get up Early: Sleep is an integral part of our daily lives. A sound sleep is necessary to make yourself feeling active, vibrant and energetic for your forthcoming speech. It creates a very bad impression when a presenter or speaker is feeling drowsy and appear sleepy in front of audience. At times it does make impossible for the speaker to set and restore the tempo of the speech when such a situation occurs, resulting in a lot of anxiety and frustration.

Just remember the day when you graduated and went to your convocation ceremony. How was it like? What could have been the scenario if haven’t slept soundly at night before the day of your convocation. Recall the day when you had to deliver an important presentation as a CEO before the board of directors and you just haven’t slept the entire night due to some reason. Very often, it is a doomsday scenario for the speaker ending up in such situations.

Bear in mind that you can never avoid sleep, no matter how much busy you are. At least you have to take a nap. Insomnia is common sleeping disorder among workaholic people in the corporate sector. And it has been part of my observation that people who sleep less are usually not good speakers.     

6. Try some Exercise or Leisure Activity: I know one perception of the reader who is glancing over this paragraph that what really exercise and leisure has to do with good speeches. The fact is that we tend to follow a monotonous schedule that makes us feel dull, lazy and drowsy. We do get bored of clerical activities and get tired with what we are supposed to do every day at work or at home.

Exercise and leisure are good for health and so they are for speakers and presenters. Ever wondered why most of the US presidents play golf? They all have the toughest job in the world and their utterance of one sentence or phrase can leave a heavy impact in the regular press conferences. Very often they are answerable and accountable what they do and impose and they have to speak to the journalists with confidences and sound reasoning. Golf is known to be a great stress reliever.

I am not claiming that every great speaker should play golf. What I mean that it is best to pursue a light exercise like walking or jogging to warm up your lungs that play a vital role when you speak. Your breathing habits have to be normal, healthy and well controlled.  

7. Dress up Neatly & Wear a Pleasant Scent: What you wear and how you appear leaves a lasting impression upon your audience. It also very much depends upon the occasion, the nature of event and the type of audience who will attend your presentation or speech. It is up to you to decide what to wear to suit the occasion and make yourself appear unique and attractive as well.

But do ensure about one most essential item to check in your checklist for good dressing and which is cleanliness and neatness. There is no point of going to a party with glossy, attractive clothes with long, untrimmed nails, untidy hair and unshaved beard. Take your time to pay attention to your neatness. Pay attention to detail and trust me it will pay you off. I have seen great speakers delivering great speeches but they ended up being ridiculed by their audiences and listeners due to their poor dressing.

Wear pleasant scent i.e. a cologne, deodorant or a perfume. Recall the day when you had to propose your future wife to marry you!  

 8. Smile when you speak: Wear a smile when you speak. People dislike facial expressions that appear to be irate, disappointed, sad, or gloomy. The more you smile, the more you add energy to your voice tone. Remember that a telemarketer’s smile can be sensed by the energy of his or her voice tone. So it goes true for the news reader, the weather man and the CEO in your company. People’s moods can be judged by their smiles. At times it is good to be humorous and sarcastic when you speak to draw the attention. But it always not a very good idea to make a routine habit without considering the nature of the event. You can’t stand someone smiling while he or she is delivering a funeral speech or has to convey a sad news.

So set your tone according to the nature of the event, content and audience. Culture also matters here so when in Rome do as the Romans do.

9. Maintain Good Eye Contact with Audience: Eyes are the windows to our souls. Just like our facial expressions eyes also convey a variety of moods to the spectators and audience. Effective eye contact is the key to effective communication and building trust in your audience. It has been observed that people who are shy or lack confidence do not keep a good eye contact during their speech. So practice in front of the mirror, in front of your family and friends and then begin speaking before the general public.

Moreover, keep your eyeballs moving and rotating and do not tend to look at someone constantly throughout the speech session. This nasty habit is quite offensive. It may work at times but you never know that the person who you are staring will become upset and begin complaining during your live speech.

10. Have a Q&A Session in the End: Very often speakers come across with situations when listeners among the audience come up with abrupt questions that seem quite pressing to be answered. Remember, that at times your audience have the right to interrupt you and you are accountable to answer them like it happens in office meetings, conferences and informal talks with friends and family.

Generally, it is not a good idea to be interrupted during a lecture, presentation or speech. You tend to lose the tempo and attention of the audience. The main topic of the speech also tend to get confused and you as a speaker gets more anxious to answer the hasty listener. In such scenarios, just politely excuse them and make them aware that they will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the speech or presentation.

Although, the aforementioned tips are indeed quite effective in terms of overcoming anxiety, they are not explicit by any means and must not be regarded as the 10 Commandments that are to be strictly followed at all times. There could be other effective ways as well. It also depends on the nature, mentality and personality of the speaker as well.