As I watched Jay Leno’s final appearance on the Tonight Show before Jimmy Fallon takes over this month, I was struck by a comment by one of his guests Matthew McConaughey.

As Matthew talked about his first appearance on the show back in the 90’s he reminded Jay about something he had said to the nervous Matthew backstage before the show began.

His advice? Simply this.

“Just wanna be here.”

This is a great piece of advice because most of us do things that we don’t really want to do but know that deep down we have to. But moreso it struck me that this is something that can really help with nerves. How many times have you given a speech that you didn’t really want to give? Or how many exams have you taken that brought you out in a cold sweat? How many interviews were you anxious to get over quickly?

A few I’m guessing.

But what if we went into all these things with Jay’s attitude of wanting to be there? I bet that if we wanted to actually be there or to be doing those things that we would experience less stress than we should and would therefore have more success.

I bet that if we went into giving a speech or an interview wanting to be there rather than not be there, it would come across clearly to our audience or our interviewer. They would be more open to what we have to say or what we have to offer.

And if we want to be there then maybe they will want us to be there too.