I have previously written about the role anxiety plays when public speaking and how when you do your “anxiety reality check” you are in fact looking twice as good, to your audience, than you think you are. Your self-perception is always twice as harsh as it needs to be.
Now even if you are anxious and nervous and the audience is seeing you as a competent speaker, imagine what would happen if you could pull yourself back one notch on the anxiety scale. Say you are 8 out of a maximum 10 on the anxiety scale, which is really very anxious, and you bring yourself back to a 7 – so still anxious, but a little less anxious. The audience is then going to see double the improvement in terms of a relaxed, calm, confident and effective speaker.
The way to bring yourself back one notch on the anxiety scale is to find those quick relaxes that you can call upon. Something that is readily available, works quickly for you and is easy to do. Maybe it is visualization, deep breathing, relaxation techniques, mediation or shoulder shrugs, to mention a few. Find out what works for you, practice and develop that skill so that your quick relax technique can be called upon at will, whenever needed and certainly just before you take the stage to speak.
More on quick relaxes in my next blog.