When you must do your best in front of others, mostly fear of public speaking is the first which appears. It does not exactly need to involve a stage. Any event which puts you in the limelight can trigger performance anxiety. The English idiom ’I have butterflies in my stomach’ can perfectly describe the typical feeling, not to mention the other symptoms when your breath speeds up, your throat tightens, your palms sweat etc.
Your negative experiences in connection with public speaking (maybe from your childhood), your limiting beliefs, and your self-image can all influence how you perform even in front of an audience of two or three people. The illusion of transparency can make things worse. The gap between your subjective experience and what people who are listening to you pick up on is known as the illusion of transparency. You usually think others can see right through you. However, the good news is that you overestimate the extent to which your thoughts and emotions leak out and are apparent to others. Actually you are better at keeping your internal states hidden than you believe. This does not mean your audience cannot detect your anxiety at all, especially if you call their attention. The focus is on the extent as it is far less than you think. Besides you should consider that your listeners pay less attention on your potential mistakes if you engage them in the story you are sharing.
Knowing about this illusion phenomenon shown by studies, you can easier shift your focus. You can do simple breathing techniques which are able to slow down your adrenaline rush, recall an event when you succeeded in a similar situation or try power posing before performing. It is all about testing the wide range of tools which can reduce the amount of your butterflies and boost your confidence to do your best in front of any audience.