How to quit fear from presentation

Hello, I would like some advice even though I know that there is no recipe in this thing.

I am having my thesis presentation in one week and I really want to get a good grade, and it totally depends on teh presentation which is about 30 minutes and then questions.

A little bit of background: I am a bit of shy person, I mean I have a good career, friends and things but when it comes to public speaking I kind of suck. All my last presenattions havent lasted more than 3-5 min. I cannot keep going more than that, since I start breathing really heavily and my mouth dries out. These are two of my biggest problems in public speaking, mouth dry which really maks it uncomfortable and heavy breathing. I dont know how ti fix that, Is there anything I can do exxcept for practicing my presantation? I know this breath before and blaah blah but I cannot breathe when under panic. Itr is like my lungs are limited And then I go home dissapointed always. Now it is the moment to change this. I wanna have a good presentation. Is there any advice from you?

Thanks!

Check out Toastmasters and Dale Carnegie (so I've heard). Have a water bottle ready which will let you hydrate and relax a bit. And picture everyone wearing their underwear (not because it's a turn on because it's humbling -you'll remind yourself that they are only human).

You have to learn and train yourself to breathe when you're in panic mode. Please do not dismiss it as "blah blah'- check out Weil method of 4-7-8 breathing.

Good luck!

Have you tried writing your speech out so that it will take 30 minutes to read your presentation out loud? Or have the speech written as part of your PowerPoint presentation where you have to read all the points and captions? Knowing your material backwards and forwards helps too. Maybe have a friend in the audience that you can look at for strength and support? An old public speaking trick is to stare at a spot on the wall and look over the heads of the people listening to your presentation. Make sure you bring some water with you. Try taking a deep breath, hold it, then breathe out slowly. This may help to calm yourself.

my thesis presentation was 30 min. also. Its not as long as it seems. I used to freak out like you at public speaking and feared my thesis presentation for two years. Which is really, really wierd because now my job is public speaking! They have covered all the points. i DID NOT FIND STARING AT A POINT ABOVE THE CROWD a workable idea. It freaked me out more. Pick people in the crowd that seem happy, and speak to them. Switch people often. Definatley know your material so you dont stumble around. That is even more important than practicing your speech. Have so much background material that all you are doing is sort of paraphrasing your project, a quick explanation because you know so much. They were pretty easy on the questions for me. Basically they just asked me to clarify some of the things I had covered. Do a quick reading about Meditation. Mindfulness Meditation is a process of calming you down, and if you start now in a week you will make great strides, and will probably use it the rest of your life. Meditate 20 minutes a day until the thesis, its really calming.

I too was going to say picture those you are speaking to sitting in their underwear. It's humbling and not appealing either. Have some water available. Practice your speech over and over. Meditating is also a good idea.

Repetition makes perfection so writes down the structure of your argumentation and repeat it over and over again.

I did present a thesis and I'm not the greatest speakers but that is what I did and that's what I did each time I have to plead a case.

I believe your thesis is structure like most of the thesis so :

- Context of the research and what is missing in the field that leads to your subject's thesis

- your thesis

- argument 1

- argument 2

etc.

- possible anti thesis and why they are wrong options

- Conclusion

So you write that down on blank paper, for each point : one paper.

On each paper, you write the main development with bullet points.

That's the foundation, now you know your subject and you just repeat over a thousand time out loud, not in your head, you speak and time yourself. It is akward the first 20 times but then it becomes a second nature.

It's like any other thing, you do it all over again until he becomes flawless.

You will be fine man.

I was very shy to present my dissertation in front of lectures and peers.

It is that age old saying of practice makes perfect.

I would suggest you really practice what you want to say for each slide. Being confident with it will make you feel less nervous.

Some people found preparing a speech makes it easier and having it in front of you. I personally find this challenging as if you deviate from it, it would make you panic. Well it made me panic.

So what I have done following that I made slide where each line was animated to come up when I clicked it. This prompted me to talk about that point and expand on it.

Wish you all the best.

Remember if you do lose your trail of thought it is normal. Just close your eyes take a deep breath and take a sip of water. Even if you repeat your last statement that doesn't matter.

I know it's about presentating but it is mainly about them understanding. So just take it all slowly.

To the people referring me "man" I am awoman on my early twenties, but thats ok, thats not the point. Thanks they are really helpful, your advices. Im not sure meditation will hep in one week but thanks to all of you tho.

Have a good outline and bring bottled water. Then prepare for questions.

presentation which is about 30 minutes and then questions.

To the people referring me "man" I am awoman on my early twenties, but thats ok, thats not the point. Thanks they are really helpful, your advices. Im not sure meditation will hep in one week but thanks to all of you tho.

Meditation will not help in one week. But over time it might along with other things. Here's what will not help in one week or one day or one minute - telling yourself you "can't" do certain things to help yourself, like deep breathing which is proven -with practice -to help immensely with anxiety and panic. I know because I've been practicing it for years.

Use a mouth moisturizing mouthwash and gum like Biotene before your presentation and bring a small bottle of water to the podium with you. Sip it as you point toward your slide, and recognize that you don't need to fill every second with speech.

Consider your attitude and perceptions to be more important than your delivery, because what you generate in your mind translates into your behavior. Address your audience as though you want to relax them to enjoy your speech, and apply that intention to yourself. The best speeches come from people who ENJOY their topic and want to share it with the people in the room. What a contrast to those who treat a speech as a chore!

Consider that most of your audience is equally indebted to you for being part of THEIR audience, so be supportive of their presentations and help generate a 'we're all in this together' spirit among the group. Carry that spirit into your turn, and treat the stage as though it's your shared spot for playing a group game--like Pictionary or whatever.

You can search all kinds of pointers for speaking, but my best results have come from generating my own enthusiasm for sharing rather than working myself up to hate the experience. Change your own mental voice about it this whole week, and shift your critical voice to one of an inspiring coach. Practice saying to yourself, "I've researched this terrific topic, and I can't wait to share all the stuff I've learned about it with the people I've come to know in my group!" Then speak to THEM, not some judge and jury you've made up in your head.

I've practiced some of my presentations under the influence of a screwdriver to loosen up and have some fun with it. I've laughed at myself while practicing on friends and family, even over the phone or Skype. I've turned the experience into less of a 'big deal' and more of a plain old requirement for graduating, and once I made the decision to enjoy working on 'the thing,' the more I actually thrived while doing so.

Head high, you can do this, and you can make the experience into whatever you want--right down to sharing laughter over any flubs you make at the time, then just roll your eyes, correct yourself, and happily move forward.

CongrAts on your milestone!

To the people referring me "man" I am awoman on my early twenties, but thats ok, thats not the point. Thanks they are really helpful, your advices. Im not sure meditation will hep in one week but thanks to all of you tho.

meditation will help in one week. A good youtube is 'the enthusiastic buddhist' by an Australian woman. Watch her mindfulness meditation tube, its 20 minutes long. meditate 20 minutes every day, and 20 minutes just before yout presentation. i meditat 20 minutes before i face off with my stressful boss

meditation will help in one week. A good youtube is 'the enthusiastic buddhist' by an Australian woman. Watch her mindfulness meditation tube, its 20 minutes long. meditate 20 minutes every day, and 20 minutes just before yout presentation. i meditat 20 minutes before i face off with my stressful boss

Thanks so much! I appreciate your opinions.