How Can I Control My Nerves?
The secret to controlling your nerves is to convince your brain that you have little to worry about. The reality is that we all get ourselves worked up far too much in the first place – we convince ourselves that we are going to under perform or embarrass ourselves beyond belief. After all I am sure you will have been in many situations where you have been a nervous wreck and once the situation is over (like at the end of an interview or coming out of the dentists) felt the overwhelming experience of calmness. Yes this is caused by your body relaxing and the adrenalin ceasing. So how can you combat this? Well it is really simple - all you need to do is be prepared and calm yourself and the nerves, to a degree, will be far less. I am sure you will have heard of the term “Mind Over Matter” well it is true. The brain and body are complicated things, you can convince yourself of anything if you want to and this can have a negative as well as positive outcome. So to deal with this issue and put your mind at rest (hence reducing your nervousness) it’s always a good idea to try and address the areas you need to deal with where you feel you will be an absolute failure if things go badly wrong. So lets just look at the major areas:
1. Drinks - should you or shouldn’t you? As I have mentioned before if you are offered a drink, be it tea, coffee or water and you think you are suddenly going to have an explosive fit and chuck your cup three foot in the air then don’t accept one. The only exception I can recommend here is Water. The reason being is that if you have a glass of water no one is going to notice if you did or didn’t drink it. However if you get stuck for something to say when asked a difficult question or you find your mouth is getting irritably dry it’s a good excuse to take a sip. While it doesn’t buy you a great deal of time it does give you chance to pause and reflect on the question a few moments before you give an answer.
2. Awkward Questions – Well unless you have a crystal ball you are not going to know what questions you are going to be asked at your interview. However if you know anything about the job then you can have a good second guess at what sort of questions are likely to come up and figure out some answers accordingly. Just remember how it was when you sat exams at school – you didn’t know which questions were going to come up so you revised all of them. Again as previously mentioned if there is a discrepancy in your CV and you think it may be an issue then try and think of an appropriate answer – don’t just ignore it and think to yourself “I hope they don’t mention that” – be prepared it will take the worry.
3. Shaky Hands! – Well I have to admit I always get shaky hands (and I am sure I am not alone on this issue!). There is no real definitive way of dealing with shaky hands really the only thing you can do is keep them under control by placing one hand on top of the other and keeping them on your lap. As you gain confidence throughout the interview and your mind drifts away from the issue you will find that the shaking will naturally ease and it should no longer prove a problem.
4. Dropping Or Tripping Over Your Briefcase Or Handbag – Come on, there’s absolutely no need to be clinging onto that briefcase or handbag. Place them on the floor (under your chair preferably) that way you aren’t going to drop them or fall over them when you get up! If you need a pen and paper (and it’s always good to have one) take them out of your attaché at the start of the meeting
5. Fear Of Sneezing or Having a Runny Nose – Again it all comes down to being prepared, make sure you take a handkerchief or tissue and have it somewhere accessible. It’s no good locked in your handbag or briefcase, place it in your pocket so you can get at it quickly should you need to.
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