Positive thinking really can change the way you deal with your fear of public speaking. Often public speakers are nervous because they have had so much negative thought going round their head.

For instance they think it will go wrong, the are sure they will forget their words and they are certain that no-one will laugh when they are supposed to. Such negative thinking means that it is inevitable that the speech will fail.

Positive thinking, however, ensures success. For instance, if you spend your time in the run up to the speech thinking that you will forget your words, you are making it likely that will happen. But what if you turn around your thinking and say to yourself that in the even you forget your words no-one will know because they have no idea what you were going to say anyway. This is dealing with the same issue in a positive way.

For all the negative thoughts you have that are leading you to have some public speaking fear, try to work out the positive alternative. The more positive thoughts you generate, the less nervous you will be about speaking in public.

Labels: confidence

Glossophobia is the technical term given to a severe fear of public speaking. People who suffer from glossophobia tend to freeze in front of any audience, even a couple of people. They find their mouth dries up, their voice is weak and their body starts shaking. They may even sweat, go red and feel their heart thumping rapidly.

If you suffer from glossophobia you shy away from any opportunity to speak in public. Your symptoms are usually so severe you get terribly embarrassed and fearful of any public speaking.

However, people with glossophobia can be cured. The first step is in understanding what your condition is caused by. Then a program of light physical exercise is next to help combat the hormonal causes of this phobia. After that, a simple management system is all you need to keep the condition at bay.

Labels: fear

Many people experience a fear of failure in public speaking. They are not fearful of public speaking itself; instead they are scared of looking foolish or appearing to fail in some way. It is this that prevents them from speaking in public.

The fear of failure is an anxiety brought on often by the way the person was treated as a child. They may have been chastised for failing to achieve certain results at school, for instance. Or they may have been told they do not live up to parental expectations. Whenever such individuals are placed in any kind of situation where they feel they are being "tested" these memories of the past trigger the anxiety.

If you suffer from a fear of failure in public speaking you need to address any issues from your past which could be affecting your performance and making you more anxious than necessary. Therapists can help you resolve issues of parental or school expectations which may be limiting what you can achieve. Alternatively, self hypnosis can assist you as well. But whatever you do, make sure you deal with the underlying cause of the fear of failure, otherwise you will never be able to confidently speak in public.

Labels: confidence, fear

The fear of public speaking can be brought on by trying to be too clever. Only recently I was at a meeting where someone had to speak for 20 minutes. He had clearly prepared his material to try and "make a speech". He had several props that he thought connected his message to his audience. The problem was that these props were difficult to manage easily, plus the speaker spent a great deal of time organising them, fussing with them throughout the talk and trying to get the audience to pay attention to them.

The speaker clearly thought his props were a great idea. His audience, however, had different ideas and thought his fumbling efforts were rather weak. Indeed, talking to people afterwards I discovered that the analogy the chap was trying to make with his props was seen as rather weak and "childish".

No doubt the speaker prepared well; no doubt he thought his ideas were excellent. The problem was the audience disagreed. Trying to hard to be different or original can take your "eye off the ball" for your talk. What the audience wants is to be able to listen to you and understand you. That means simply chatting to them.

If you try to inject "cleverness" of any kind into your talk you will end up being more nervous as you attempt to manage the props, the jokes and the other devices you have used to connect everything together. By being straightforward you will avoid such nonsense and will be more confident as a result.

Labels: causes, confidence

People who have a fear of public speaking often find it difficult to get started. They tend to "warm up" and take time to get going because they are nervous. Only after a while, when they have realised the audience is not going to attack them do they settle in to what they are saying and relax a bit.

However, you can cope with this kind of public speaking fear by ensuring you have a strong opening. What you need is an attention-grabbing start which you have practised several times so that you could do it without thinking about it.

Once you have that organised you start your talk with it. This will immediately grab your audience and you will see their keen interest in you, boosting your confidence and making you have less fear.

Labels: fear

Many speakers say that standing on the platform without any audio visual aids is the most nerve racking thing they can do. All I can say is that when I run training courses, I make people do just that. Every single time, without fail, for the past 20 years, trainees have said to me that they are amazed. They suddenly feel free and realize that their confidence is HIGHER when they stop using slides. The very thing they were using to provide support and act as a kind of comfort blanket appears to be the very thing which is causing their nervousness and fear. Giving up audio visual aids is one of the most important and biggest fear reducing steps you can take.

Labels: fear

Self confidence is a general and realistic belief in one's own abilities. Self confident people trust in their own ability to achieve goals that they plan and set out to achieve. This belief needs to be realistic. Self confidence does not mean that an individual can achieve anything and everything, even absurd goals. It simply means that the person will have a sense of control over their own destiny, a positive frame of mind and is likely to make the best use of talents and skills in achieving positive outcomes.

Achieving self confidence and removing the fear of public speaking is a fine balance. Lack of self confidence or under-confidence will result in an individual doubting his abilities. Such people seek the approval of others for reassurance. They believe they have to conform to the expectations of others to fit in and be accepted. They will tend to avoid taking risks for fear of failure. They expect to fail and this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy! Under-confident people tend to under-achieve since they have a low estimation of their abilities and therefore will not push their boundaries to achieve their best. They also tend to play down their abilities in public speaking and are often uncomfortable dealing with compliments - usually discounting them.

On the other hand over confidence is not desirable either, as such individuals may tend to have unrealistically high expectations and beliefs in their abilities and therefore take unwarranted risks.

Self confidence is not necessarily all-pervasive. An individual who is completely comfortable and confident in one area of activity, say his work or profession may lack confidence in other areas such as social situations.

What factors contribute to lack of confidence?
Lack of confidence is often the result of unrealistic expectations. Constantly aiming for perfection is a certain recipe for failure which reinforces feelings of inadequacy. Children who grow up in excessively protective environments and are not allowed to develop their independence may tend to be less confident than others who are allowed to develop their own abilities and self reliance. Similarly over critical and demanding parents may undermine a child's self confidence and cause them to continually doubt their abilities even in adult life.

What steps can be taken to improve self confidence?
Low self esteem and low self confidence are perpetuated by unhelpful and often destructive thought patterns. Self confidence may be improved by identifying the offending thinking habits and taking steps to correct them. For instance seeking acceptance and approval from everyone may be an unrealistic expectation. The fact is that in day to day life one will encounter people that will never approve of every aspect of your life. It is far more beneficial to set personal standards which are not dependent on the approval of others.

Under confident people are quite often their own worst critics. They are quick to brand themselves failures at the slightest obstacle. It is important to remember that even the most successful people encounter setbacks. What sets them apart is how they deal with that setback and venture into the future. A setback or failure in the past need not dictate the course of your entire future. However, if at the first sign of failure you label yourself a total failure, chances are that's exactly what you will be! Evaluate your expectations - Are they realistic? Don't be overly critical of yourself. Refuse to accept the criticisms of others where it is unrealistic.
Give yourself credit for what you do achieve rather than focussing solely on the negatives. Resist the temptation to magnify negative outcomes out of proportion while minimizing positives.

Persons with low self esteem avoid risks and may therefore never truly find out what they are capable of. Taking calculated risks can broaden one's horizons and help to gain greater self awareness and acceptance.

Evaluate your standards - substitute more reasonable expectations for perfectionist targets that are bound for failure. Build up to more challenging targets as your confidence grows.

Self consciousness is a major hurdle to self confidence especially when public speaking. Diverting attention away from yourself can help to diffuse this situation. This can be achieved by keeping yourself occupied with other activities or focussing on the purpose of the speech and engaging your mind on furthering that. Not having enough to keep your mind occupied is guaranteed to produce feelings of self consciousness leading to feelings of anxiety, inadequacy and lack of confidence.

These are just a few steps that may be taken to improve levels of self confidence. Clearly it is just the tip of a very large iceberg and the most appropriate measures would of course need to be determined by individual circumstances.

Labels: confidence

Many people think you can "over practice" a speech or presentation, so they decide to only practice a few times. However, it is this lack of practice which is the cause of so much public speaking fear.

The fear of public speaking is partly there because of entering the "unknown". When you are familiar with a situation you are much less fearful. The first time you drove a car you were much more nervous than you are now if you have been driving for several years, for instance. It's the same with speaking - the more you do it the less nervous you become.

So, for each individual speech you need plenty of practice sessions in order to get rid of any fear of public speaking. Actors take weeks to learn and practice their roles; they don't do it with just a couple of practice sessions. Equally, the best sales people have practised their "lines" in order to get customers to buy. Olympic gold medallists don't win without practice. So what makes people believe they can perform well on the platform giving a speech without any practice?

And remember practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect. Practising in the wrong way only means your speech will be practised wrongly and then when you come to deliver the real thing, you will be nervous. So, practice out loud, with movements, props and your audio visuals. Practice in the room you are going to be in as well.

Labels: causes

Studies show that public speaking phobia, and most phobias, develop in middle or late childhood stage. It usually starts from an unpleasant experience like being humiliated in front of the class; this unpleasant experience gets stored in the child's memory and is brought up when faced with similar situations.

Children who have been exposed to people with public speaking phobia, like their parents or friends, learn the phobia by hearing them. They immediately conclude that what they have heard of is true without actually verifying the facts.

Research also shows that genetics also play an important role in developing phobias. It has a tendency to occur in families. Phobias are mostly likely to occur in identical twins, than in fraternal twins.

Luckily, there are many ways to treat Phobia.

PERSONAL MOTIVATION. There are many self-help books that can help you overcome your public speaking phobia. Your desire to overcome your fear is the most important factor of treatment.

PROFESSIONAL TREATMENT. If self-treatment does not work for you, you can seek help from a professional. Exposure to therapy is a good example of this method, which focuses on the behaviour instead of the thoughts of the sufferer.

•Other kinds of treatment include:

Counseling - discussing your phobia with a professional.
Hypnosis - or even self hypnosis
Medication - This method is used if the sufferer has other mental conditions that are affected by the phobia. The use of these drugs can only be used for a short period of time. Using medication alone cannot cure the phobia.

Labels: cures

Being anxious before a speech or presentation is not unusual. Indeed it is normal for many people. Anyone who is not a little anxious before speaking probably is not thinking hard enough about the likely impact of their talk. People who want to make an impact have a degree of anxiety because they want to be sure that their speech will work.

The anxiety may be caused by a fear that the speech might not work properly. Or it can be due to an expectation of failure. However, a common cause of anxiety is a 'high' of happiness and excitement. So, even confident, excited presenters will have some degree of anxiety.

If you are not anxious before a presentation or a speech you clearly have no expectation of failure, but neither are you excited by your talk. In other words your audience will perceive you as just as bored as you feel. Anxiety is good for you and your audience. However, too much anxiety can inhibit your performance. This is when anxiety turns to stress or worse, panic. To avoid excess anxiety the best remedy is careful planning and preparation as well as plenty of practice.

Labels: fear

If you are a nervous speaker, you must tackle your lack of confidence and get rid of your fear of public speaking. Not only will you feel better, but it actually helps your audience as well.

Audiences themselves feel nervous if the speaker is lacking confidence. And when an audience is nervous or concerned for the speaker in any way they actually stop listening to what is being said. Hence if you display any nervousness or exhibit your fear of public speaking, you will not get your message across.

So, even if you think it's only a single speech, you may be nervous but it will all be over after 20 minutes, you may not succeed at all. Your audience could notice your fear of public speaking and therefore miss what you say. You need to be sure that you exhibit confidence and you will find the steps necessary to do that in How to Abolish Your Fear of Public Speaking.

Labels: fear

People who are frightened of public speaking sometimes try to reduce their nerves by having a drink. A quick gin and tonic can't hurt much, they think and they also assume it will steady their nerves making them feel relaxed. But this "Dutch Courage" can actually have the reverse effect - plus if you have a drink that is too big, the audience will notice and not respect you.

However, there are drinks that will help you reduce your nervousness. Herbal and fruit teas are helpful, such as camomile. So too is plain water - often minor amounts of dehydration can reduce your effectiveness making you more nervous.

Any drink containing caffeine, such as tea or coffee, will not help. They will actually make your nervousness more pronounced, so they should be avoided for a full 24 hours before any talk. If you are a heavy drinker of caffeine products you should stop drinking them 7-10 days before your talk so that you do not suffer from withdrawal symptoms.

Labels: cures, remedies

One of the main reasons people fear public speaking is because they are worried they will forget their words. They are often so concerned they will forget what to say, they need notes, PowerPoint slides or other devices that they can use as a prompt. However, audience research shows that if you do use notes of any kind you are less trusted and less liked than speakers who have no support of this kind.

So how can you remember what to say, without resorting to notes of one kind or another? The first thing is to be sure that your speech tells a story, or several stories. Stories are easier to recall, so if your talk is story based you'll find it is more memorable for you.

Secondly, use several pictorial examples - fill your talk with visuals that you have to describe. You will then end up with several "mind's eye" pictures about your talk that will make your speech easier to recall.

Props are also great for helping you remember what to say and therefore remove your fear of public speaking. Have your props arranged around the room; they will act as visual clues as to what to say next.

Labels: fear, memory

Many people appear to believe that they are unusual in that they have a fear of public speaking. They look at other speakers and see them exuding confidence and wish they could be just like them. They are envious of their apparent lack of public speaking fear.

However, almost everyone has some degree of fear of public speaking. It is a quite natural phenomenon. That's because we don't normally conduct any kind of conversation on a "one to many" approach. Almost all our conversations are "one to one"; even at dinner parties where you may have several guests you tend to only talk to one person at a time.

As a result our life experience tends to be talking to people "one to one", so as soon as we are plunged into a situation that is "one to many" - as in public speaking - we tend to be rather worried and concerned. Fear of public speaking is therefore a natural occurrence.

What the confident speakers have done is change the attitude they have to speaking. Instead of seeing the situation as "one to many" they still treat this as a "one to one" situation. They imagine they are talking to members of the audience on an individual basis, rather than imagining they are talking to the whole group. If you treat public speaking as a "one to one" rather than a "one to many" situation, you will find you lose your fear of public speaking more quickly.

Labels: confidence, fear