Or maybe a nicer way of asking is, what are you so freaked out about? Is fear rattling your cage? Got you in its grip? But why? Fear is just a little, four letter word. But for being so small, it can carry a lot of weight. But if you break it down to what fear really is, I believe it's just a mix of two scenarios — what was and what if. What was — is the past. It's finished. Complete. Over and done with. It cant' be repeated even if you wanted to because its already happened. What if — is the future. It's the unknown. The possible outcome. The unexpected. You don't know what to expect because it hasn't happened yet. And it's the “what ifs” that tend to keep people in its paralyzing grip and prevent us from moving forward. And these “what ifs” can take on several different forms, like:

But for the purpose of this article, I’m going to focus on the fear of doing something. Let’s take giving a speech for example. It hasn’t happened yet, in fact you’re no where near stepping onto the stage, you’re still in the writing stages and thinking about what you want to say. But in your mind, you’ve fast forwarded past the writing part and went straight to the stage. But instead of imagining yourself giving a rock-solid performance

If your friend was giving a speech, would you say things like “Remember to practice a lot – you don’t want to forget your lines”. Of course not! You’d say things like:

We’re often the best cheerleader when it comes to our friends and others and offer tons of encouragement, but when it’s about us, we’re often our own worst critic. I’ll admit, giving a speech can be daunting, especially when you’ve never made one before, but it really can be a fun exercise if you just view it a bit differently.

3 suggestions to get that “I’ve got this” feeling

1.
Focus on your audience, not yourself. When you take the focus off yourself, you’re no longer worried about what you will or won’t do, because you’re no longer thinking about you, you’re thinking about your audience and how you can help, and serve them. 2.
Practice – it makes you comfortable Notice I said comfortable – not perfect. Nobody’s perfect, but if you rehearse what you want to say a few times, you’ll feel better about delivering it. But remember, it’s your speech, you’re the expert, so even if you got something in the wrong order, no one’s is going to know about it but you, so you can relax. 3.
Just be yourself Be natural, be you. Remember, the audience is already cheering for you, even before you’ve said your first word. They want you to be a success, and if you think like your audience, you will be!