Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.

Most of what decides an outcome happened before the day of it. The visible performance is short and largely a matter of retrieving what is already in place, which is why people who look effortless are usually people who did the dull part earlier. Preparation cannot be improvised at the last moment. It can only be skipped and then paid for.

Take whatever you are anxious about in the coming fortnight and find the piece you could build now: the rehearsal, the numbers, the first draft. Do that part while it is still early enough to be boring. Nerves shrink roughly in proportion to the work already banked.