Easy solution to overcome feelings of doubt

Doing any public appearance requires a great deal of courage. My first radio show segment I must of spent 16 hours prior to it spread over a few days practicing my lines. I most certainly over did it and I will explain why. I was extremely nervous and anxious. The problem was I did not know what or how the experience was going to be. 

I was taking a leap, and it felt scary going into the unknown. I should mention that this radio segment was going to take place 6 times over the next few months, and also that it was going to be in a different language (Russian). Yes this is my native tongue, however only speaking to my parents and close relatives in Russian I am certainly not fluent in it, although I like to believe I am. My vocabulary is very limited, I have never gone to school to learn Russian. I have my grandparents to thank for teaching me how to read and write it (with a bit of a struggle and a slower pace). 

Days before the show I took out pen and paper and started listing any worry that I had for doing the show and I countered those worry's with exact opposite statement. For example: I will sound stupid. I will make mistakes. I will not know the content, etc. I countered those statements with: I will be confident and prepared. It is ok to make mistakes, I will have my notes and be prepared. It will be great everyone will enjoy listening to me, I have nothing to lose. I still carry this list with me.

So while I was preparing for my first show, I was practicing in Russian as well as English. This took tons of effort, translating words on the internet that I wasn't sure how to say in Russian. On the morning of the show I was so nervous that I turned off my audio book that I usually listen to in my car and all I did for the hour and a half to the studio was repeat the words I can do this, I can do this. After all I will be speaking live on prime time radio in the morning to listeners local and around the globe.

Low and behold when I got to the studio my nervousness did not go away, and I got there so early that I had to sit sweating away waiting until it was my time to start. Once I started speaking to the mic the nervousness did go away, and because I was so overly prepared, which I don't suggest for you to do, that the topic for discussion seemed to go smooth, or so I would like to think so. The 45 minute segment turned into an hour. I had a great response from the listeners (lots were calling with questions). The reason I don't suggest to overly prepare because the whole hour I actually touched on about 5 percent of the material that I studied and memorized. Those 16 hours of preparing seemed to be a waste at that point. Sure I had more knowledge on the subject I wanted to discuss, but did not get a chance to do so. And so this would go on for all 6 segments on the radio. I mean I didn't study for all of the segments for that long of a period, but in all the segments it was usually 5-10% of the material I wanted to discuss that we actually discussed. The rest was of the cuff, free for all, on any and all topics the host wanted to touch base on, mostly we talked about the previous guests on the show that day, or about myself. I had a great time and it was an absolute wonderful experience.

Was there a time when you felt that you are taking a risk, doing something your not too sure of?

I suggest if you have something that you will undertake and you have feelings of doubt, write them out and then on a separate page write out the opposite to all the statements you have doubts on, this is a powerful tool to overcome anxiety when moving into the unknown. If your going into radio do not try to memorize any lines, sure you can have maybe the main points written down, but memorizing lines you end up sounding like a robot, and you are not able to adapt and react to the callers questions. 

The shows are all recorded you can follow this link if you want to check it out, I warn you most of it is in Russian, however there is some English in there as well  Vera FM.