My suggestions are to take improvisational acting classes. They will get you to loosen up and approach things differnetly. The other thing I would suggest is that for every audition and every job, think of a very specific person you might have occasion to say the copy to. This should be a real person and not some imaginary friend. Picture that person, whether your wife or husband or father or best friend's 9 year old, sitting next to you or in whatever postion the copy might dictate. For example, if the copy were to say "Good morning honey did you sleep well?", you might envision your boy/girlfirndd or spouse lying next to you in bed and it's first thin in the morning. Or perhaps your daughter had nightmares and you're waking her up to go to school. The copy will usually dictate the where and the when and you can figure out a good who to plug in.
And, if you're afraid to take off the cans, ask the engineer to get you out of the mix, so that all you hear back is talkback direction. Eventually you'll be able to ditch the cans. Learn to trust yourself and the meters and you can work by yourself at your home studio without cans. On longform work it can be a little bit annoying having to go back and pick up a line with a popped p or some other problem, but even doing critical listening through headphones while you're doing v.o. doesn't mean you'll catch everything.
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