‘Every time I make a mistake, people will laugh at me, it embarrasses me.' If this is what you are thinking before delivering your speech, you are probably very nervous on stage. When delivering a presentation, it is definitely important to stay calm and composed. If speech nervousness is your Achilles' heel, feel free to apply these simple steps of cognitive restructuring.
Cognitive Restructuring in simple terms, just means ‘thinking more useful thoughts'. The thoughts and emotions you experience in every situation is based on your beliefs. So in order to not be afraid when you speak, you have to change your existing beliefs that gave rise to this fear or nervousness.
<b>Step 1 Be aware of your existing habits</b>
Write down the scenario that you want to handle better, in this case, public speaking. Find out what are the thoughts that make you nervous, it may be that you are afraid people will laugh at your mistakes, or that you are challenged by the audience to something you don't know. Whatever they are, write them down.
<b>Step 2 Replace them with positive thoughts</b>
After writing down the thoughts and beliefs that make you nervous, you now want to change them to those that are positive. If you are afraid people will laugh at your mistakes, think ‘It is alright to make mistakes, I can learn from it and at the same time have a good laugh together with the audience'. Write down your new beliefs in the same scenario on a new piece of paper.
<b>Step 3 Practice</b>
Now that you have clearly outlined your desired scenario, there are 2 ways which you can practice it. Firstly, you can practice it at any public speaking situation, or secondly, visualize the situation in which you changed. Sit back and relax, close your eyes and imagine yourself in the exact same situation. Now, imagine yourself making a mistake, and instead of thinking your audiences are laughing at you, you now laugh along with them, making the atmosphere more cheery.
Now that you know the steps, practice consistently to get rid of speech nervous. Also, do not be afraid to apply these techniques on other behaviors or thoughts that you want to change. Just follow the same steps to achieve your desired results.
Good luck,
MJ
