Fear Is Natural
I’ve experienced more than my fair share of fear and anxiety in my life. Whether it was performing as a musician for years, getting up in front of a classroom to teach or, now, looking at the final presentation of my career as a student, there’s no small element of fear, anxiety, and general trepidation involved.
It’s easy to say to just ignore fear, but that’s not an intellectually honest way of dealing with it. Fear is your mind and body telling you that you are in a high stake situation. Learning how to deal with it is key to doing well in those kinds of scenarios. For me, two things have helped. The first is exposure. After about two decades, the very shy child has learned through hundreds of lectures and musical performances that he can, in fact, do it. People are also pretty kind even on most of the bad days. Good practice also helps a lot. If you think you might forget something you need to say during a presentation, it’s time to practice it until you cannot forget it. I have not played saxophone regularly in over a decade, yet I can still play some pieces I used for competitions, from memory to this day. That access to the muscle memory will remain even when I’m scared, so it’s a great tool to use for high-stakes situations.
Planning helps
In situations where success is the only real option for you to continue your life as you want it, you’re going to have to plan ahead. This is especially true if it’s something where you’re at the center, like a recital, final presentation, or meeting that has the potential to change your life.
For me, that means making the first PowerPoint I’ve used in years, and making notes so that even if I totally panic, I can still fall back on those and get me through the day. Rehearsing the important parts of what you need to do, down to things like a dress rehearsal in the outfit, and ideally, the room that you have to use can help make it feel like the situation is under your control.