Public speaking remains one of the most feared topics. It takes guts and a strong nerve to speak in front of an audience or a crowd without letting the innermost fears and insecurities being a hurdle. Everyone gets the frights before, as well as while speaking in front of others, but being so scared that the fear overpowers you and stops you from of speaking your mind in front of others is a major hindrance in life that you shouldn’t pay.
Glossophobia or speech anxiety is the fear of speaking in public. It is a very common fear and we all have experienced it on a lower or higher frequency somewhere in our life. Be it on the school stage giving a performance or in front of peers and colleague giving that presentation in a conference or meeting.
The fear of public speaking can hold you from achieving a lot in your life. You should know a way to tailor those ideas and opinions of yours to others. In order to make others understand what you want to convey, you first have to speak up by putting behind your worries of being wrong or humiliated. If the world leaders and activists didn’t speak out loud to the people, their ideas and messages wouldn’t have been heard. You don’t have to speak up to change the world but public speaking helps in personal growth and development too.
Fear is an important part of our life as it teaches us to be careful and helps us by being mindful by having precautions. But, if that fear becomes a barrier between us and the audience we are speaking to, then that wall somehow falls between us and our path of success.
There are many career choices and potentials related to public speaking. It can help you open up new opportunities and, and help you in personal growth and development too. Public speaking helps in inculcating traits such as creativity, critical thinking, better leadership and communication skills, etc.
“Being aware of your fear is smart. Overcoming it is the mark of a successful person.” – Seth Godin
Here are some tips that can help you in overcoming and fighting the fears of public speaking that holds you back.
1. Be organized
Prepare well for the day ahead. Organize your notes and do thorough research on your topic. Don’t forget any essential and make a to-do list. If you are giving a presentation, make sure you have the material and, practice your complete overall presentation several times to know if there are any loopholes or any place you can improve. The more organized you are, the chances of being nervous become less and the fear of presenting also lessens. You are confident enough to give your best and know already that you are ready.
When you get organized, your thoughts and you become more calm and relaxed as the chaos becomes less. When you are clear and organized, you can focus more on your speech and focusing on one thing at hand is more productive rather than multiple things in the surrounding that distracts you.
Rehearse many times before the gig. Focus on the timing during the rehearsal and reduce the stress regarding timings and all the other hassles. Focus and organize the mess you know may be there.
2. Challenge your weakness
When you are nervous or too scared of something the chances of making mistakes often hikes. You try to make it all perfect and in a line but due to the stress and pressure you put yourself under a lot of stress, and the tower of perfection tumbles down. Point to find your weakness and make a list of your weaknesses that make you worry. Then challenge your weaknesses and try to overcome the fear and work on it. It may happen that you make a few mistakes and don’t get it perfect right away, but it’s alright.
Remember that failures are stepping stones to success. Learn to channel your negative and nervous energy into a positive way which can light up your path to success. Being nervous and anxious is a form of adrenaline and you can always twist it and change it to use it during your public speaking. If you won’t face your fears that add to your weakness then you will not be able to grow and overcome them. To conquer those fears, you must learn to face them first.
3. Avoid overthinking
Overthinking is one of the major culprits behind most of our in-built tension and stress. We tend to over think and evaluate a situation as worse than it actually is. Don’t overthink about the results or what others may think of you or your presentation, give the best you have and it will be worth it. Mistakes are inevitable, so don’t pressurise and overload yourself if you made a mistake. It is all right to make mistakes, but it’s important to learn from them and move ahead.
Overthinking about it will only make the situation worse. If you lose track of what you’re saying while your presentation or speech and start to feel nervous as your mind goes blank, then take a step back and breathe deeply. Even if it’s long, don’t worry; your audience won’t mind it that much that what you’re overthinking about it.
It is really appealing to think that confidence means preventing any mistake that we can make, but the truth is that mistakes and vulnerability can be our great strength. The way to connect to the audience is by being human and to be human means you have flaws and make mistakes.
4. Participate more
‘’Experience is one thing you can’t get for nothing.’’ – Oscar Wilde
When you participate more and grab the new opportunities to speak in public speaking, you get a chance to learn more and practice more. Experience helps us to become better at our jobs or any kind of opportunity with a potential that can help us grow. Even if we are good at something, experience helps us to polish and sharpens that skill. We cannot gain experience without jumping in the arena to face the situation.
Same goes with public speaking, the more you stand with courage and speak, the more you will learn and become better at it. Public speaking should be more of volunteering that forced work. The more often you speak, the more you realise what makes you better and what is holding you back. Also, if you try and face your fears, may be not the first time but again and again, you conquer them and you defeat them rather than them defeating you.
5. Eliminate the fear of rejection
Stop visualizing about what will happen and how others will think of your performance. The fear of rejection is natural to have but remember that the audience is there to listen to your message and cause for a reason.
We often tend to make negative scenarios in our head that hold and stop us from giving the best of us. Try to eliminate the fear of rejection, conquer that fear and turn it in an asset. Try to think more positively. Try to give the information and facts generously to your audience. Focus on the message, the insight, the inspiration you want your audience to walk away with and the idea and message that you want to seed in your audience.
The more you focus on the more important things, the lesser the negative and fears will get to you.
6. Visualize your success
There is a reason you hear that we should remain positive and think positively. Thinking positively brings positive vibes that help us to be more positive and in turn, most of the time brings out a positive result.
Think and imagine that your speech and presentation will go well and hold on to that thought. Try to stop the thoughts that are telling you that you cannot do the public speaking successfully, these thoughts are somewhat the roots for the fears and the insecurities we have. Positive thoughts can help you be confident and release stress and anxiety. After your speech or presentation, be proud of yourself that you overcame that hurdle that is one of your fears. It may not have been perfect, but you did your best and chances are you are your own critic than the audience will be.
You can learn great things from your mistakes when you learn to accept them under a positive light.
7. Choose a topic you really care about
Choosing a subject or a topic for your public speaking that you really care about and think about gives you a passion that drives you to give your best and leave that fear behind. So, try to choose a topic that has an impact on you and you want to pass on that message or the lesson to others. The subject can be personal or completely impersonal, it should be just that it should come from your heart and you have a desire to share it with others.
Public speaking can and has been a great source for awareness, awareness, and information can be passed on successfully only when you really care about it and want to bring a change or want to pass it on to others.
Nervousness and anxiety in certain situations are perfectly normal, and public speaking is no exception. Knowing and understanding a topic or a subject makes the nervousness and anxiety less and helps you perform better.
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‘’If you want to conquer fear, don’t sit at home and think about it. Go out and get busy.’’ – Dale Carnegie
Everything you want is on the other side of the fear.
If you are unable to conquer your fears despite of you trying really hard for it, you can also get professional help. There are many courses that teach how to be good at public speaking that are designed especially to target the roots of those fears and help to conquer them.
- Nivedita Kundu
Source: https://mindgrad.com/free-reads/f/7-tips-to-fight-the-fear-of-public-speaking
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