 You are going to FEEL more nervous than you appear.  Everyone feels some degree of nervousness.  Extra energy can actually help you to deliver an amazing speech.

What exactly are you afraid of?  Are you afraid that people are going to laugh at you?  Are you afraid that you are going to die?  Are you afraid that people may prejudge you?  What exactly are you afraid of?

 How can you overcome this fear?  Know your audience  Carefully prepare speech so you know exactly what you want to say  Practice, practice and more practice  Try and simulate actual speaking conditions  Try and go first or near the beginning

 How are you going to overcome this fear?  Think of audience as a small group of friends  Visualize success  Focus on message and not nervousness  Give mental pep talk  Deep breathes (I am…….relaxed)

 Reflect and learn from your speaking experience  Give yourself credit for what you have just accomplished  Stay positive

You’ve failed many times, although you may not remember. You fell down the first time you tried to walk. You almost drowned the first time you tried to swim, didn’t you? Did you hit the ball the first time you swung the bat? Homerun hitters usually strike out the most.

RH Macy failed seven times before his store in New York caught on. English Novelist John Creasy got 753 rejection slips before he published 564 books. Babe Ruth stroke out 1,330 times, but he also hit 714 homeruns. I applied to over 50 schools and interviewed at 5 different schools before I got my first teaching job.

Don’t worry about failure. Worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.