"I'll See It When I Believe It" is the title of a book by Wayne Dyer and it perfectly captures why people feel anxious when making a presentation. In fact, it represents why people feel anxious at any time.
Think about a situation where you experience anxiety. This could be on a job interview, a first date, travel to a new country or, what I am going to be mostly addressing, delivering a presentation. What exactly is making you anxious?
To understand this, you need to understand a bit of how our brains function.
Our brains are designed to ensure that we survive the future by predicting that future. When our existence depended on hunting, accurate predictions about where animals will graze ensured a food supply. If we can predict how an audience will respond to our presentation, then we can plan for how to handle that response. If we can predict the future, we can plan for any contingencies in that future.
On a first date, we can select a restaurant to go to and predict what we should wear. Otherwise, we might be embarrassed showing up at a fancy restaurant in a t-shirt and jeans.
When planning for a presentation, we might find out the room we're going to be presenting in, the people who will be there and plan for what we will say all in the interest of predicting what will happen in the future so that we can prepare.
The problem is that, in all our predicting, we can never be sure of what will happen in the future. We can only predict based on what has happened in the past and hope that the future will be just like that. This leaves a vast landscape of the unpredictable. And since our predictions are based on the past, we bring to our awareness only the things that match our beliefs about ourselves, others, and the world. Everything else gets filtered out ("I'll see it when I believe it.").
If, for example, we predict that an audience will be hostile, that's what we are looking for, so even the most innocuous question might be interpreted as hostile. If we predict that we're going to be judged negatively, then when we see two people whispering, we'll think they're criticizing us. If we think that we're unprepared, forgetting what we're going to say even for a moment will be confirmation of how unprepared we are.
The key to successful performance in any realm whether a first date, travel or presenting, is to stay present (as in presentation skills).
There are lots of ways to do that but the easiest and most common one is to use your breath. Your breath is always in the present. You can't breathe in the future or in the past. You can only breathe in the present.
So if you notice yourself being anxious:
1. Take a slow breath in and count to 3.
2. Exhale slowly for a count of 9.
3. As you exhale, say the word "relax," or "present," or "peace" or whatever word has meaning for you.
Do this a few times as you are setting up your slides or arranging your notes or looking for a laser pointer or remote or taking a drink (only pretend this. Don't breathe as you drink).
I once saw a sign over a casino entrance that read, "You must be present to win."
Exactly.
I'm a consultant, speaker and author of "Present and Persuade: Create Talks and Speeches That Capture Hearts and Change Minds."
I title my articles "Presentation Skills Rules" for two reasons:
1. There are rules to presenting that, if followed, will make you a master of persuasive presentations.
2. Being a master of presentation skills means that you can rule over your audiences. Not in the sense of dominating or controlling them, but in the sense of being able to produce a predictable outcome with your audiences.
You see, when presenting, anyone can produce results some of the time. But when you understand the rules of presenting, you will know how to produce results every time. And that's when you'll understand why mastering the rules allows you to rule over your results.
By Larry Barkan
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