Think of your life as if it were a movie. You enter into a new situation and inevitably study the cues around you – visual, auditory and kinesthetic – to determine how you should act and feel. Your mind raises past associations which lead you to consciously or unconsciously act in certain ways in the new situation. For instance, whether you’re going on a date or for an interview, your mind “replays†similar situations and you take your cues from replaying past experiences.
Most people enter new presentation situations either replaying their own historic presentations – that didn’t go well – or replay those that didn’t go well for other people .Since our unconscious mind can’t differentiate between fantasy and reality. Here’s a tip to help you overcome speaking anxiety. You control the future movie. If you develop a detailed enough “fantasy†in which you are presenting the right message, clearly and powerfully, connecting with the audience over it and exuding a leader presence, you can visualize success: buying into your sale of a service, product or idea.
For instance, start at the beginning of your day, and visualize all the things you will do and play it back over and over again until it’s all at a relaxed pace and you’re feeling confident about it. Start at the beginning of the day and work your way through the details of getting dressed, eating breakfast, commuting to work, doing work until called for the presentation, Then, visualize the setting: walking into the room, greeting the executives, sitting down, taking the initiative to frame the conversation and presentation, sharing information and engaging your audience so they ask appropriate which you answer perfectly, and concluding the meeting by having them agree to your proposed course of action.
As you work through the details you actually reduce the number of things during your actual day which will potentially throw you off your game. Moreover, as you work through the details of making your presentation, bonding with the audience and answering their questions, you actually are building greater expertise with which to handle difficult questions and feeling comfortable creating bonds with your audience. So here are five specific steps to help you:
- Choose a very definite, specific outcome you want from your presentation
- See, hear and feel the environments you will be in to give you comfort when you encounter them
- Be thorough in your movie script; rehearse at least three time
- When you rehearse feel more and more confident that you’re prepared to handle any deviations.
- Review the results afterwards – how could you have made the movie more effective.
The next time you’re going to make a presentation, use the mindmovie to help you fake it and eventually make it. And then share with us your experiences!