Dealing With Nerves

Before - I always, always rehearse. Try to tackle any pauses/stuttering during rehearsal to come up with a clean, coherent, and cogent presentation. Especially useful for OCR, I made notes with bullet point answers to some of the most common questions such as "Tell me about yourself", "Why IB", "Why our Firm", etc. By rehearsing my answers I felt more confident coming into the interview. However for interviews, I think it's best to come prepared with an idea of what you will say, but don't memorize and regurgiate your answers. It will be apparent to your interviewer, and you'll come off as robotic and ingenuine.

During - I like bringing a bottle of water. Whenever I feel I need a short pause to gather my thoughts and prepare for what I'm about to say next, I'll take a drink of water. Of course, don't do this too often, or you'll disrupt the flow of conversation.

1. Preparation
2. Realize that whatever it is, in the greater scheme of things it probably isn't as important as it seems right now

Breathe, not joking. Take a deep breathe, and relax. Imagine sitting in cloud, happy and grounded. Relax well. Stop thinking, release your muscles. And take another deep breathe. Done.

Visualisation - visualise having done it right.

Besides being well prepared for whatever it is that I'm about to do, I always exercise an hour or so before hand. Generally, I just jog a few miles.

I listen to music.

It doesn't always work for everyone, but personally, I always like to put things in context.

Like its a presentation in class about X and Y, the overall significance in life is rather minimal when you put things into context.

I also like to think that interviewing is rather the same, I am not a surgeon trying to save the life of someone who is a father/mother of 3, I am a graduate/student interviewing for a job and if I fuck it up, worst case I do not get the job/do not get a good grade - it isn't like someone's life is on the line.

It doesn't work for everyone, but it has helped me a lot in the past.

Cranking one out. Nothing calms the nerves quite like a romance explosion.

You can't be nervous if you are the Master of Your Domain

Drop a deuce in the bathroom. Establish your dominance of the territory. Go out and knock the presentation out of the ballpark. Profit :)

I used to love public speaking and always jumped at the opportunity to blab off to people, but at around 16 I did this presentation in front of 100+ Citti bankers and basically shat myself on stage and couldn't find my words, up until last month I've avoided any form of public speaking as I was too nervous and let this mindeset take over, I shied away from opportunities in college ect to display my talents due to this fear, however I had to present this project two months ago and I said fuck it, I'm a fucking boss and better than these pussys, psyched myself up and have never been so confident and now I'm dying to present again. It's all about the mind set say fuck it and kill em man!

Back when I used to compete in tennis tournaments, I create a mental "sanctuary" to deal with my nerves and anxiety. This "sanctuary" consisted of an arbitrary focus point that was a 3 by 5 card with a circle drawn by a felt-tipped marker. I found that I could place separate my anxiety in the circle, yet focus on the presentation at hand. I know it sounds out there, but it helped me win some tournaments and it has helped me overcome my speech impediment, especially when addressing a large audience. Also, I would recommend reading The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance. This book has great information that helps you focus better and allow your nerves get in your way, and it relates to life, not just tennis.

This is interview/public speaking specific but join an improv group like Second City, UCB, etc. Or go into acting.

You'll get a feel for how to control a room pretty quick. You're also most always on stage with a group as well. Lastly, you learn best practices in regards to memorizing and engaging too.

Suddenly that 5 minute speech in front of a room of half asleep and half interested colleagues is a god damn breeze.

Smoking a cigarette. Old school, I know.

three shots of jack

Rehearse religiously, and do it while speaking out loud. Have someone watch you. If you have to give a presentation, tape yourself and listen to it while you're driving or walking around to hammer it home. Wear a suit while rehearsing to get yourself in the experience. Rehearse so much that you get sick of it. But when the time comes to present, it will be second nature and you won't be nervous. You'll focus more on sounding natural than actually remembering what it was that you had to say.

Learn to meditate which will help you control your breathing. Also, in general just focus on breathing exercises to start. Those will help you to control your anxiety at a basic level. Beyond that, try to find small things in a low-risk environment that cause anxiety and force yourself to deal with them repeatedly. I had pretty bad general anxiety as a kid and I learned a lot of techniques early on to help out with that. As I moved into my teenage years I was a pretty competitive athlete one area where I thought I was successful was by being able to calm my mind and perform at a consistently high level even when under pressure.

The combination of dealing with all of this in a low-pressure environment(winning at my sport was not vital, I wasn't at the national level) helped me to refine ways to deal with the pressure.

So for example, if you struggle with public speaking, sign up for a public speaking class. I'm sure you'll get nervous before all of your assignments, but who cares if you mess up in front of a bunch of random people? Do that a bunch of times and you'll become desensitized to it. From here you can start moving up to bigger anxiety causing events and by applying the same principles you'd practiced at the lower levels you should be able to cure much of the anxiety.

Lastly, when it comes down to it, try and put it in perspective. Nothing you're doing whether it's an interview or a presentation is life or death.

i usually have a couple drinks to calm the nerves before heading over to your mom's her hands intimidate me

The things we (as humans) do for money.

I saw a similar thread a while back and the advice was to arrive early, then walk into the bathroom and take a big dump so you feel like you own the place and then wait for the analyst to come inside and take a piss all over them to show them who is alpha. Get back to me on how that goes.

I used to/get really nervous before things like this too. I've kind of got my own routine that helps that may help you. I use this primarily for social functions, interviews and presentations.

Constant: I lift 4 days a week with 1-5 short cardio sessions tossed in. Don't drink on week nights unless it's a work related thing.

3-5 days before: Start a No Fap, No sex, no drinking anti-binge. Keep the testosterone and brain cell count high. 1-2 days before: If it's really important, I use this time to get my clothes and hair in order. Get a nice haircut, make sure the shoes are shined, etc. If possible, try and get a little sun to get a tan too. You look good you feel good. Morning of: Run or walk on the treadmill for like a half hour. Get a little sweat going but don't work too hard. Listen to music similar to Bugatti by Ace Hood. 30 mins-1 Hour before: Save your morning coffee for this period, you want the caffeine flowing to keep you alert.

I've also begun to write down what my biggest fears are, followed by what the worst thing that could happen as a result of it are, followed by what I could do to fix it.

Its very hard to exert control over your emotional state. If it were easy, "Don't be nervous" would solve all of your problems. You can have success in regulating your physiology though. And our emotional state is largely a response to what's happening to our underlying physiology. If your heart rate is out of control and your breathing irregular this becomes a stream of information that your body has to interpret and then in turn becomes feedback for you emotional state.

If you want to improve your composure the best way to do this is to regain control of your physiology. Dr. Alan Watkins who is a neuroscience and physician has a two part Ted Talk called "Being Brilliant Every Single Day" that details this phenomenon and how to exercise some control over it. Hope it helps.