Building Your Confidence

• Prepare for the unexpected. Anxiety has positive effects as well, such as driving you to be more prepared. For example, anxiety over forgetting your speech’s main points might cause you to prepare with solid notes. By thinking about what might go wrong, you can come up with simple solutions for just about any scenario.
• Desensitize yourself. Sometimes the best way to get over something is to “ust do it.” You address your fear of public speaking by making attempts to get up in front of a crowd in less threatening situations, like asking a question in class or at a community meeting or singing karaoke with friends.
• Visualize your success. Research shows that people with high speech anxiety tend to concentrate on negative thoughts before giving their speeches (Ayres & Hopf, 1993). In order to reduce those thoughts (and their accompanying anxiety), it’s important to spend time imagining positive scenarios and personal success, a technique known as performance visualization (Ayres, 2005; Ayres & Hopf, 1993). Imagine yourself standing before your audience with confidence and grace—and it just may happen.
• Take care of yourself. In order to be productive, remember to take care of yourself in the days leading up to your speech: get enough rest, budget your time effectively to make room for your speech practice sessions, try to eat a light meal before the presentation, and try relaxation techniques (such as deep breathing, yoga, a calming walk, or laughing with friends).
• Practice, practice, practice. As we’ve mentioned—and as we’ll discuss throughout this chapter—adequately preparing for your speech will increase the likelihood of success and lessen your apprehension or anxiety (Smith & Frymier, 2006). Research demonstrates that confidence does come through preparation and skill building, which means that conducting thorough research, organizing your points, and preparing a useful outline will help you achieve a positive outcome (Schroeder, 2002).