Sunday, October 24, 2010

Why are you afraid of Public Speaking?

Most people do not know because they are afraid of public speaking. We only know that they are afraid. Recent surveys rank the fear of public speaking, fear or akastage Glossophobia in the top 5 of all fears. This is quite high considering his companions on that list for fear of spiders, heights, and even the fear of death. Think for a minute, there are people who would rather die than speak in public. Sounds crazy,right? The sad truth is that it is not so bad.

One might ask: "Why am I afraid of public speaking?" For most people the underlying reason is the fear of failure, rejection and humiliation. The mentality of someone with this fear is that "I'm afraid of making mistakes and then be humiliated in front of the public." Although this is a legitimate fear, the reality is that you are not alone with this feeling and it 'made her feel that way. The truth is that your audienceI do not want you to fail. They want you to succeed. And even if you make a mistake, they will understand. The crowd did not laugh at your mistakes.

I want to share with you a story about me. I was very shy, introverted child. I have not talked to people I do not know, and I could not go on stage to do any kind of performance. I learned to play the trombone when I was about 9. I offered to perform in a school play. It was not my idea and I see no way around it.I practiced for a week straight and I thought it was ready. The day of the show, I was so nervous I felt physically sick. I have not done for performance reasons. I wanted to die. So I took a small hammer and dented the slide of the trombone slide would not be quite so (I really wanted to play the drums!). I came to school with my instrument "altered" and proceeded to draw up a story about how my trombone was damaged tell. Luckily there were no spare parts and I could jumpmy performance.

I want to share another story to show where I arrived after conquering my stage fright. By the time I got to college, I had a few tools under my belt to do with my anxiety. In my second year I became a guide, giving tours of the campus to students and parents. For two weeks every summer I had to speak to a group as small as 5-6 and as large as 200 to 300. I would talk for hours, giving facts and figures, the answerquestions, and fun group. Later I joined a dance group that regularly performed in front of hundreds of people. Once again, I used the tools I had and even developed my own tools to deal with stage fright. Not bad considering what I did to that poor trombone!

I tell these stories, because it illustrates the lengths some people will go in order to avoid public speaking or any form of presentation or performance, and demonstrate that with time andeffort, great things are possible, overcoming the fear.

There is good news for those of you who suffer from this kind of panic. You can minimize the ', stress, anxiety, panic, fear and even use fear as a tool to give you a better Speaker. For many people fear can be overcome with simple steps without the need for therapy (unfortunately for some, the fear is so great that some professional advice may be required to obtainyou started). The key is knowing how to prepare for the event and how to stay focused. Like everything else in life, the more you do, you are better - that is "practice makes perfect."

So the next time a presentation speech, group or service in front of one, remember this: Fear is a tool that can help a better speaker. Your audience wants you to succeed. You just need to get up and do.

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