“One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.”

— Henry Ford

At every presentation, I was really nervous, my hands were shaking, my voice was not steady and I was searching for words.

I hate this feeling. People are looking at you. They see every detail and hear every mistake, and the teacher is judging you. You prepared a text that you almost know from memory. But suddenly all the words you wanted to say are gone. You are nervously looking at the prepared sheets in your hand, but you cannot read them because you are shaking. That’s a really awful feeling.

After high school finished I thought that I never have to do those terrible presentations again. I was wrong. Doing presentations at school is one thing you will probably need your whole life in almost every job sooner or later.

At University

The presentations didn’t stop, because in Architecture you always have at least 2 presentations of your project every semester. This time you worked on your project for a few weeks now and you should be able to answer questions and then have a discussion about the concept, the details, or their feedback.

At some point, you will notice that you will get less nervous with every presentation you are doing. They are also easier if you know your project and the topic by heart.

I still don’t like presentations, but they get easier and it depends on the topic and the situation. The best thing is that my hands are not shaking anymore.

“Courage is being afraid but going on anyhow.”

— Dan Rather

Go Deep Into The Things You Don’t Like

Doing presentations is one of the things you need for the rest of your life. So instead of fighting it, why not go deep into it and learn about it? There are meetups and bars where you can do presentations and learn some things from other presentations too.

Go out of your comfort zone.

I’ve learned to do presentations in my student organization. I’m the president there currently, so I’m the head of meetings a lot and I’m also giving workshops. At first, I was afraid and nervous, but you know the funny thing about your body and your mind: you get used to things really fast.

Your brain will go into the automatic mode of presentations and you don’t think about it that much anymore.

“Instead of worrying about what people say of you, why not spend time trying to accomplish something they will admire.”

— Dale Carnegie

Use The Getting Used To Things Fast

Our brain and our mind are getting used to things, circumstances, and people really fast. This can be positive or negative. The Positive is that you can get used to doing presentations, and you will not be afraid anymore.

On the negative side, you get used to the person you love and spend a lot of time with and so it can be that you take the person for granted at some point.

Things that were exciting or terrifying at first, will feel normal soon if you do them more often.

Take it as an advantage to learn exciting stuff and make them feel normal.

If you repeatedly do presentations, they will become normal and you will also get good at them.

Just do it!

Your habit will destroy things that were scary the first time.

“Don’t be afraid to fail. Be afraid not to try.”

— Michael Jordan

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I wrote an inspiring list of books that helped me grow and go out of my comfort zone.