This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 114, How to Convey Your Nervousness in English.
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Hey, Michelle, what do you do when you get nervous at work?
What do you do typically? Oh, I feel like people have lots of different things that they might do.
I feel like I'll either take some deep breaths or maybe, you know, talk to someone at work.
Maybe we're going through the same nerves about something.
And I think that there could be a good thing.
What about you, Lindsay? Well, that's what I do, too.
I like to talk to people. That helps me to just get a sense of, am I being crazy?
Is someone else being crazy? Am I losing my mind?
Or am I justified to feel nervous, right?
It just gives me a check with the world, right?
Breathing deeply feels like a good idea and it might work for some people, but it doesn't quite work for me in that moment, right?
More as a daily practice, like a meditation practice that works great.
But I'm curious what our listeners would say.
So guys, if you are listening in Spotify, we actually have a poll today. we can you can go in this episode to wherever you're listening in Spotify only of course um and and say what you would do we have three choices what are the three choices if you get nervous at work what do you do it's breathe deeply get some physical exercise yeah like maybe take a walk around the building yeah yeah that could be helpful or or just talk to a co-worker event to someone Okay, so guys, we want to know what you do.
What is your go to action or reaction to stress?
So go fill out the poll, just choose the one that describes you.
And we'll share the results later in another episode.
Okay, cool. All right. So we have this is all based on a great listener question by CC Carrillo.
Lindsay, could you read the question? okay the listener says i would like to listen to how i can control my nervous energy or my nervousness when i'm on in a job meeting could you help me thanks all right good question and this also came from the spotify comments yes so you guys now have the opportunity to you know leave comments ask questions and do polls if you listen in spotify so good place to listen right It is.
Okay, Lindsay, we want to direct our listeners also to Business English episode 96 was, do you love your job?
How to find out. So... Listen to that one.
But this is a great, great question from our listener.
And I think everybody can relate to this.
We all get nervous. So this could be for interviews, meetings, presentations.
Being nervous is human and I think very common in the business world.
And I think people don't want to talk about it that much in the business world because there's kind of this pressure to be like, oh, I have it all under control.
And it's kind of hard to show that vulnerability.
But I think that we all secretly have these feelings.
Yeah, it comes down to perfectionism. That's just a form of perfectionism that I have to have it all under control.
No one has it all under control. No. Right?
We're all just making it up as we go along.
I think that's a famous quote by someone.
I'm not sure who said it, Michelle, but we're just making it up as we go along.
Someone. Yeah, we all get nervous. It's a human feeling.
So I mean, this is a great question. We can I'm sure we can all relate to is to this.
So the first thing is, you know, we talked about like for a poll, you know, take some deep breaths.
This can clear your head. Get more oxygen flowing.
Just make you calm down. There are lots of different breathing techniques.
Or maybe you want to be like Lindsay and do some sort of daily meditation.
So you can kind of get that overall feeling of calmness so that you're well practiced and you know what to do.
Yeah, like if you just take in that moment, if you can remember just to take 10 deep breaths, it does help, right?
So I said earlier that it's not my go-to.
I would tend to talk to someone, but sometimes that's not an option.
Everyone's in a meeting or everyone's busy.
You just can't always have someone to talk to or to vent to, or maybe you don't feel like it's the right relationship, right?
There are lots of complications when you involve another person in your own stress, right, Michelle?
So it's nice if we have our own resources that we can go to.
Right. Right. So of course, yeah, then then it comes to, you know, I didn't have these listed.
But what we did come up with is venting to a coworker, and physical exercise.
So like Lindsay said, physical exercise, maybe you always exercise at lunch, right?
Maybe you have a walking group, and you guys take some walks, or maybe you just take a walk around the building just to step away from your desk when you get a second, that can be helpful, too.
Michelle, do you do that when you, maybe not so much stress, but when you feel like you have a mind block, if you're trying to prepare an episode, for example, and you're just not getting any ideas, although we have so many ideas, you just have a mind block.
Do you go and get active, maybe walk around your block, go walk to the coffee shop?
And does it help? Yeah, I sometimes I have to be like, because I plan a lot of episodes.
And sometimes I do have those moments where I'm like, you know, I have a lot of ideas I'm trying to pick.
And, you know, if I if I do too many at one time, you know, sometimes I want to say, OK, I'm going to sit down for two hours and just plan as many episodes as I can.
But somehow sometimes I just hit a wall a little bit. and i think that happens with anything you so i have to sometimes say okay no i need to i need to step back from it for a second maybe maybe i am going to walk to pick up my son or whatever it is but yeah i for sure have that i think we all do like if you if you're doing something for over a certain amount of time and you plan i'm gonna do this for you know it can it can kind of it can kind kind of be tricky even if you like what you're doing which I like planning episodes but you kind of get you just need to stop yeah yeah yeah I think what you're trying to say is you can't muscle your way to good ideas right you can't muscle your way what does that mean for our listeners a bonus word for today muscle to muscle it's kind of like you can't force it right like yeah mm-hmm exactly you can't force it you can't so you know and it will come like they will come but if you're going to yeah if you're going to muscle it you're going to like think of like lifting weights like right right if you're going to get to that spot it's not flowing that naturally and if you realize you get there and it's like it's too it's too tough um then sometimes just put down the weight and come back to it later Yeah, you need kind of a state change, right?
For me, it helps a lot to go to Orange Theory.
I just go and then I come back and my mind's in a whole other state.
Or even just taking a shower and maybe going for a walk or going and doing something and then coming back.
You need that state change. But then on the other hand, there are other activities like recording.
Right. Right. Yeah, it keeps keeps things.
Yeah, keeps it flowing. Right. So you have to kind of know which tasks do you need to maybe step back from a little bit and which ones do you need to just keep it going and flow through?
Right? Is this a thinking task? Or is this a performing task?
Right? So you need to know yourself and your work, of course.
So what would be the next tip for our listener here and for all our listeners?
Well, I think to be extra prepared. Practice whatever it is.
Let's say it's for a meeting or you're going to do a presentation.
Just really practice or be able to just talk about whatever is important.
Just prepare for this. Let's say it's a meeting and you're presenting an important idea.
Visualize the meeting beforehand. Imagine what might happen beforehand.
And visualize yourself doing a good job, I think, is a good thing to do.
Just visualize yourself completing the task, getting things done.
So having that image in your brain, I think, can help a lot with the nerves.
Yeah, I think that the preparation and the visualization are two separate things.
I think that's important to emphasize because if you don't know your stuff, right?
If you're giving a presentation, you can't visualize your way to success.
They'll know that you don't know what you're talking about, right?
That's a good point, Lindsay. Yeah, so I think the foundation is definitely preparation.
Know your facts, know your topic inside and out.
Just that creates natural confidence, right? and then we can add on the visualization the breathing the food the diet the water everything right right the more prepared you are for something the more comfortable you'll feel i mean it's true also of taking a test the you know the more you study the more you know your stuff then you know but um i was never a great tester but test taker.
I mean, that's why in our IELTS course, Three Keys IELTS, and guys, by the way, we have a whole other podcast called IELTS Energy, which you could check out.
But in Three Keys IELTS, we start with the strategies.
We show you the strategies. We make sure you're strong in every strategy for every question type on the exam.
And then we have a module called anti-anxiety where we tie in.
Here's where you're most likely to get nervous because these are the hardest parts of the test.
And here's what you can do. But that's only after you know the strategies a thousand percent right yeah yes that's true yes very much so um and then the other thing is you know like let's say you're nervous in a meeting take notes during the meeting i mean i think you should probably take notes anyway yeah but this will kind of like if you're sitting there and you're nervous in the meeting give yourself a little task so giving yourself okay no i'm all i'm doing is taking notes i'm taking some notes um and then or if you have a question about something you can mark it down just like You know, take, relieve the amount of things you have to carry in your brain.
Yeah. And have better attention, you know, if you don't retain things verbally as well, especially if it's a topic you're not used to or in English, right, which is challenging.
So write things down, take notes, then you have your own database of what was said and you can go back to it.
Yeah, that's right. Yeah. And then the last thing is this one is to drink water and eat food.
I mean, this is understated. This sounds obvious, but a lot of people skip meals or they don't drink water and your brain needs that energy.
So you'll feel better. Lindsay, do you ever skip lunch or breakfast?
I never skip. I don't get the whole skip a breakfast or eat a light breakfast thing.
I just can't. I don't get it. Because to me, like that's the most important time to fuel up your body and your brain needs those calories.
I just, I know a lot of people who do, but I don't, I don't understand how it works.
I have to eat right. Like, yeah, there are some people who can also wait a long time to eat breakfast.
I pretty much, I wake up and I'm ready to eat.
Um, so, and I can't, I don't know that I've ever skipped a meal.
I never skipped meals either. Yeah. It's not going to work.
So, um, guys make sure to eat and drink water.
See details online. I love these rules.
I love the idea of starting with the competence, right?
Knowing your stuff and then adding on these extra strategies, right?
Yeah. Yeah, right. And some of them are very basic seeming, but maybe things that we haven't thought about that can actually relieve that stress, relieve those nerves.
So should we just do, let's talk about a couple things that you can say if you are nervous, ways that you can express to yourself.
Yeah, because everyone gets nervous, like we said.
And as soon as you share that you are a little nervous, you relax.
And that's going to contribute to your competence then coming through in the meeting, right?
You need to give your competence, your expertise, the space to come through so you don't have that effective filter up, right?
That's right. That's right. So what's one thing you could say?
I'm a bit nervous. Simple. Yeah. Very basic.
Or I'm a ball of nerves. That's a fun way to say it.
Or you could add just there. I'm just a ball of nerves.
I'm just a ball of nerves. Yeah. Or I'm taking some deep breaths.
Right. So you're preparing some maybe you're going to be presenting in this meeting and then someone asks you, OK, how are you doing?
I'm taking some deep breaths. I'm OK. You're showing that you're nervous in different words.
Right, right. And that vulnerability, I think, is just a good conversation topic as well.
Because I don't think that, I don't know, I don't think you want to hide your nervousness from everybody.
You don't want to walk around saying, I'm nervous, I'm nervous all the time.
But I think if somebody asks you, oh, you have a big presentation coming up, how do you feel about it?
Like, I think, you know, it's okay to express, oh, I'm a little bit nervous, but, you know, and then say something positive.
What do you think? 100%. Yeah. And then there's also the piece of you just got to get through it because it means the next meeting you'll be less nervous because you're building experience.
And experience is what actually creates confidence.
It's not always affirmations, right? It's the actual raw experience of being in these meetings, presenting, talking.
That's what gets you that confidence so you don't feel that every time.
So that 15 years into your career, you're not going to be feeling that nervousness anymore.
Yeah. That's absolutely. Yeah, that's right.
You'll get you'll be a pro. But Lindsay, any any thoughts about like, what?
How do you act when you're nervous? What do you do?
Because I get quiet when I'm nervous. Do you?
Okay, you get quiet. Yeah, I think I do too.
Yeah. Let me see. I do get quiet. I get a little bit like maybe cracking my voice.
I don't articulate as much. I don't use my hands as much.
I get smaller maybe and quieter. Yeah. Yeah.
It's interesting. Yeah. Yeah. I feel it like the heart beats faster.
Oh, yes. Oh, Oh my gosh. Well, that's the adrenaline pumping through you, right?
If you get any kind of bad news all of a sudden, you might hear immediately your heart starts beating and all our listeners can identify with this because we all have the human body, right?
It's like the fight or flight, right? Mm-hmm.
Absolutely. Ooh, that's a scary feeling.
And all of a sudden you feel that punch of hormones like rushing through you.
Crazy feeling. Yeah. Body's crazy. Body's crazy.
What's the takeaway on that note, Michelle?
Yeah, on that note, no, I'm really glad that our listener asked this question because it's, like I said, it's a human emotion.
People feel nervous and especially with work that happens.
So we talked about nerves in the workplace.
What are some of our tips, how to handle it, and also just how to express that.
So I think the takeaway is to remember that you know, one of the things we talk about a lot on this show is how, um, business life is, it's all humans, right?
We're not like, yeah, we are still people and we want to remember that.
And it's okay to have these real emotions.
So, oh, and guys want to remind you, um, if you are listening on Spotify, go ahead and put the answer into that poll so we can hear your thoughts.
I'm excited about that. Yeah. I mean, you know, because you're doing business with other human beings, when you share something like I'm a bit nervous, that actually endears people to you and builds that connection.
That's right. Also, remember, the most important way to combat nervousness is expertise and competence.
So learn your trade, learn your thing very, very well.
That's the key, right? Very good. Well, I'm glad we talked about this.
And guys, hopefully you got some good tips from today.
All right, Michelle. Talk to you soon. You take care.
Bye. Bye, Lindsay. Bye, guys. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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