How I Got Over My Fear of Public Speaking

As an introverted kid, public speaking was always the bane of my existence. Other kids were afraid of monsters under their beds, and I couldn’t stand being in front of the class for two minutes, which was really odd because I was good at it. 

Now that I’m in college,  I’m able to speak about my experience getting over this fear, because it used to make me nauseous with nerves. Speaking about something you’re invested in and knowledgeable about might come easy; doing it for a grade in front of your peers can be stressful. 

Let’s face it, who has the mental capacity to picture everyone in their underwear when you’re giving a full-blown speech? A little self-awareness can challenge you to think about why you have this fear, and that’s where I started. 

Facing Your Fears

Most of the time, when we’re afraid of something, we try to avoid it at all costs, but that isn’t really possible with something like public speaking, as it’s utilized constantly in business atmospheres. For me, the fear never “wore off.” I had to challenge it head-on. 

When we think about public speaking, the fear usually comes from the discomfort with being vulnerable. We’re scared of embarrassment and what others might think if we make a mistake. Reframe this entirely: everyone is afraid of making mistakes. Mistakes are almost always met with the opportunity to solve them. 

If you are in the middle of a speech and something goes wrong, keep calm, breathe, and start where you left off. A room full of college kids aren’t going to laugh at you. 

At the same time as mentally grilling yourself to understand the reason you’re afraid in the first place, you can use this leverage over yourself to switch perspectives. One of my favorite methods is actually just tricking my brain. Nervousness and excitement are two very close emotions. If I tell myself I’m excited to get the speech over with so that I don’t have to worry about it anymore, I’ll eventually feel excited for the speech itself.

Preparing Properly

To remind you to practice obsessively would be bad advice; I know you’ve heard it before. Yet, it’s really important to practice continuously, with and without people watching. Practice the parts you are struggling with and then the whole thing again. Your brain will naturally create benchmarks to memorize the speech, and you’ll be golden on the day of. 

My biggest advice about preparation isn’t about the content at all. To make a successful speech, you need a clear head to recall the knowledge you spent hours putting together. It might seem a little silly, but I swear it works. The morning of your speech, don’t practice a lot. Take a shower, take a bath, sit outside, and don’t distract yourself with any technology. Let your body adapt to your surroundings; it’s like resetting your nervous system. 

Then, you can ramp things up on your way there. Play your favorite music, let loose, let yourself smile. You got this!

My Overall Thoughts

I attribute all of this growth to my speech teacher in my sophomore year of college, where I learned to love public speaking even though it still feels like my heart always feels like it’s going to explode. 

I need to stress that it’s all about calming your nerves, positive self-affirmations, and practice. Trust yourself, you know this! If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that overcoming a fear doesn’t always mean getting rid of it completely. Sometimes, it just means learning how to work with it instead of letting it impair your abilities. 

Try to remember that you’re probably not the only one who’s nervous. And who knows? You might even learn to enjoy it.

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