You might be surprised, or maybe you wouldn’t. I’ve had the opportunity to coach senior level executives, including the CxO levels, and sometimes it surprises me when I get this question. “I still get nervous before I step out there to speak. What can I do?” It’s not just executives. It’s all of us. I get this question A LOT!

While there’s a list of tips you can follow for overcoming fear of public speaking, the best tip will always be proper preparation. But what seems crazy, is that sometimes even when you’ve properly prepared… you still feel nervous to a fault! What gives? How can you take care of those last minute jitters?

You just have to do this one thing

If you remember the movie City Slickers with Billy Crystal, this tip to my students always reminds me of Curly, the old cowboy from the movie play by Jack Palance. Curly tells Billy Crystal’s character the meaning of life. He says, “It’s just one thing.” When Billy Crystal’s characters asks him, “What’s the one thing?” Curly just smiles says, “That’s what you need to figure out.”

Well, I’m not going to be as cryptic as old Curly. I’ll tell you the secret to calming the last-minute nerves is just one thing, but I won’t tell you to figure it out. I’ll give you a little help…

One Thing for Two Minutes

To properly calm yourself, you just need to do one thing for two minutes. When I say “do one thing” I mean you need to focus on one thing. This is actually what some people call “meditation.” In fact, that’s really what meditation is all about! You just focus on one thing. If someone is starting you out with meditation, they will usually have you focus on your breathing as the “one thing.”

If you’re going to focus on breathing, you would sit quietly and just notice your breathing for about two minutes. Don’t actually change your breathing, just notice it. In through the nose… slow… cool… refreshing. Now, out through the nose… warm… heavy… slow.

I tend to focus on… the Sense of Touch

While breathing is just fine, I’ll sometimes choose to focus on one of my 5 senses. Oversimplified, we are all like computers. We have 5 data ports (your senses) and data is constantly streaming in through those ports. When the data comes in, it is sent to the CPU of the computer (the brain) for processing. To quiet the mind and calm my nerves, I pick one of the senses and I observe the stream of data coming in through that port right now.

My good friend (an amazing speaker and brilliant instructor) Paul Slattery taught me this technique many years ago. Find a quiet place to sit for a few minutes. Then get comfortable in a chair with your back all the way up against the back of the chair. Then… start your focus observation by starting at the floor and working your way up.

• Feel the sole of your foot in your shoe…
• Feel your leg crossed on top of the other…
• Feel your hands resting on each other on your thigh…
• Feel the backs of your thighs on the chair…
• Feel your bum on the chair…
• Feel your lower back touching the back of the chair…
• Feel your upper back touching the back of the chair…
• Now move your head slightly and feel your neck muscles engage…
• Then… you work your way right back down the body.

Once you get back to observing your feet, you start your way back up and down again. Usually a quick scan up and down twice will be about two minutes. This should be enough to calm your nerves.

Why does this work?

We tend to get nervous before speaking when we allow our mind to run away from us. What does that mean? It means we allow our minds to go to the future or the past, instead of staying focused here on the present.

“I remember the last time I had to do this and it was a disaster!” (your mind is in the past)

“I hope they don’t ask me that tough question. I bet they will hate this.” (your mind is in the future)

When you take a couple minutes to bring your mind into the present, it calms you. When you meditate by focusing on one thing for two minutes, you are forced to watch the data stream as it is coming in. The data is happening right now. It centers your mind on the “right now” and it calms you.

My usual first comment to someone I’m coaching is just this, “Focus on WHAT you’re doing and not HOW WELL you’re doing it.” There will be time to evaluate later. For right now, just stay focused on the present and the task at hand.

The best analogy I can think of for this is a free-climber rock climber. Do you think they are evaluating how they’re doing with this climb while they’re doing it? I doubt it. They are not grading how well they did. They are focusing only on the task at hand. They are focused on WHAT they’re doing.

Time to calm the nerves… see you next week!
Russ