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How to Handle Post-Pandemic Speaking Nerves
Most public speakers whom I’ve been checking in with of late are impatient to get back to face-to-face presentations. And those are on the way; anecdotally, I’m hearing of more and more in-person events being scheduled or planned for October and after. I have little doubt that, barring some huge pandemic step backwards, we will be mostly in person by early 2022. Of course, I hope the wheels of time turn faster than that, but this whole pandemic era has moved much more slowly than most people imagined it possibly could.
One of the interesting side effects of the pandemic is that many of us have gotten less used to social interaction. Even extreme extroverts have reported to me that they have found themselves feeling nervous about going back to the office and interacting with other people more or less normally.
These feelings of social awkwardness jibe with a study done of some scientists who spent nearly a year in isolation in the Antarctic, doing research. They found that when they returned to their normal lives (pre-pandemic) they were nervous about simple trips to the grocery store. They had to re-learn how to be with other people again.
As a speaker, you will most likely go through a similar readjustment process, with higher stakes. Be prepared, the first couple of times you are on an actual stage, for the…
