Confidence is important for presenters and speakers. Or is it?
Do you really have to be thinking ‘ I can do this’ or ‘this glass is half full’? What if you just got on with speaking or presenting without this internalising.
It’s going to be hard to do both so why not drop the idea of getting yourself feeling confident or positive and just focus on what is happening in the present moment.
Chesley Sullenberg, the pilot who landed his commercial jet in the Hudson River is quoted as saying that he believes in short term realism and long term optimism. It seems that he mostly works in the present. What do I do now? Rather than ‘we might all drown’?
As an alternative to optimism or confidence, do the preparation and remain in the present. If thoughts about a negative future intrude, let them leave the same way they go in. Calling them thoughts will steal all their power. Thoughts can’t hurt anyone.