We’ve evolved to have some extraordinary skills.  Chief among them is a whole battery of brain cells and autonomic functions that focus almost exclusively on keeping us alive.  All mostly unconscious and incredibly efficient.  

That’s a good thing.

Unfortunately, not so good for public speaking.  Because the famous ‘fight or flight’ adrenaline response is marvelous for evading saber-tooth tigers, but not so marvelous when it goes into overdrive in response to an audience.  The (conscious) symptoms are uncomfortable, and unless you learn how to manage them, they may cause you to do something weird in front of that audience, like pace relentlessly back and forth in an effort to dispel the excess energy you’re feeling. 

So here are a couple of things to do to make that unconscious mind work for you in the modern world. 

First, redefine the uncomfortable symptoms as good things that signal that you’re enjoying the hyper-vigilance that comes from adrenaline.  Racing heart?  Clammy palms?  Sweaty all over?  Tell yourself all those symptoms are helping you do better. 

OK, that doesn’t help a whole lot, unless you’re very persuasive.  Second thing to do:  breathe slowly and deeply from the belly.  Three deep breaths should help. 

Third, and most important in the long run:  start talking to your unconscious.  The good news is that you can train it to work for you.  This kind of work is well understood by Olympic athletes, who spend a lot of time visualizing success, because they know that otherwise their unconscious minds will betray them by presenting an alternative (what if you don’t make it over the bar?). 

So when you’re about to fall asleep, start talking to that unconscious mind, telling it how wonderful a speaker you are, how good it feels to be standing in front of a crowd sharing your wisdom, and what fun it’s all going to be.  Then visualize the happy occasion.  Just like an Olympic pole-vaulter visualizing leaping gracefully over the bar. 

If you do this properly and thoroughly over a period of several weeks, you will find that your public speaking performance improves enormously and those jitters become far more enjoyable or go away entirely.  I talk about this in more detail in Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma, but here it’s enough to say that you should try it, especially if you think that your nerves are getting in the way of a great performance.