The deadly sins of public speaking can completely wreck your best efforts to give a good speech. It’s important to be aware of them so that we can eradicate them from our speaking. What are your public speaking deadly sins?

Do you ever feel as if your nerves might get the better of you?

Do you wish you could speak as well as someone else?

Are you guilty of infobesity?

Do you tend to overrun your allotted time?

Do you find yourself apologising if you make a mistake

Are you someone who never has enough time to prepare?

Is the spotlight on you?

As a speaker, it is too easy to fall into some or all of these traps when talking to an audience. Prompted by the seven deadly sins, here’s my take on the first of seven behaviours we should try to eradicate from our public speaking and steps we can take to do so.

I’m so nervous – the deadly sin of Lust

Lust may manifest itself as approval seeking. Such speakers desire success, they want their audience to love them and may even criticise other speakers, exaggerate their own abilities and encourage hero worship from their listeners.

The problem with this is that it tends to result in feeling really nervous. With the desire for success comes the fear of failure. Fear and nerves are very likely to sabotage the very thing you desire.

By imposing so much pressure on yourself, it’s no wonder that Jerry Seinfeld was able to observe that “to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy”.

And if we accept the words of Mark Twain that “There are two types of speakers: those that are nervous and those that are liars”, then we probably all have a bit of lust lurking within us.

What can you do about your nerves?

Try thinking about nerves simply, as adrenaline. Adrenaline can either work with you as positive energy that you want to share with your audience or as negative nerves that can make your brain freeze and overwhelm you with fear. Ask yourself why you are really speaking. Is it to satisfy your ‘lustful’ desires or because you have something to say that is important to you and of value to your audience. The second perspective will help you befriend your nerves.