Be The Winning Speaker - Part1

Dear loving people,

Have you ever been asked to speak in public and you immediately felt sick to your stomach? You started thinking of every excuse you could to get out of speaking.

Whether you are the leader of a small community group, football team or a business owner, I am confident you will be asked, if you haven’t already, to speak in public. Whether you are in front of a small or large group, public speaking is a great opportunity for you to sell yourself, products or services to potential audiences, customers or clients. So running away from the opportunity to sell yourself or to promote your business shouldn’t be an option.

However, for many, public speaking is the worst of the worst of all evils. It causes anxiety; increases stress level and may even cause a person to lose sleep. It is a fear that most people don’t want to overcome. So, if you are one of many who fear the thought of speaking in public then this new series on Living Lectures will assist you in conquering such fear. There are five strategies I have learned from many successful speakers and have personally used when speaking in public that have proven to be quite useful…and you can use them too. If it’s working for me, I am too sure it will work for you.

Strategy 1: Throw Perfection Out the Door

If you are afraid of public speaking because you fear the embarrassment of making mistakes in front of others, then don’t be. Even professional speakers make mistakes. They stumble over words too. It’s natural. We are all human. The key is to recognize that mistakes will happen, so don’t beat yourself up when they do. For example, the very first time I had to speak in public, I was so focused on every little word I was saying that I inevitably mispronounced a word or even slurred words together because I was speaking too fast. I literally used to beat myself up over it as I replayed it back in my head.

But then I realized it, making a mistake during a presentation does not carry the death sentence. Dwelling on an error and feeling bad about it only adds to more anxiety. So, give yourself permission to make a mistake, regardless of how well you are prepared … which is the next strategy we will be looking at in the next posting.

Talk to you then…

Fear! You Must Overcome part4: The More You Know, the Less You Fear

Dear loving people,

The last part of this series focuses on taking action to definitly conguer fear in your life. Fear is also caused by ignorance. When we have limited information, our doubts dominate us. We become tense and insecure about the outcome of our actions. Ignorance causes us to fear change, to fear the unknown, and to avoid trying anything new or different. But the reverse is also true. The very act of gathering more and better information about a particular subject increases our courage and confidence in that area. You can see this in the parts of your life where you have no fear at all because you know what you are doing. You feel competent and completely capable of handling whatever happens.

Once you have identified the major factors that cause you to feel afraid, the next step is to objectively define and analyze your personal fears. At the top of a clean sheet of paper, write, “What am I afraid of?”  Remember, all intelligent people are afraid of something. It is normal and natural to be concerned about your physical, emotional, and financial safety and that of the people you care about. A courageous person is not a person who is unafraid. As Mark Twain said, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.”

Begin your list of fears by writing down everything, major and minor, that causes fear, stress, or anxiety. Think about the parts of your work or personal life where your fears might be holding you back or forcing you to stay in a job or relationship in which you are not happy. Once you have written down your fears, arrange them in order of importance, and then pick them apart one by one.

To conquering your fears, All the best!