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Afraid of public speaking? Fear is always a symptom of an underlying
attitude in your inner life. Here are some of the most common reasons
why:
1.
PERFECTIONISM
- a speech can never be perfect, only optimal. Having unrealistic
expectations about your performance and then beating yourself up when
you don’t meet them is extremely stressful.
2.
NOT KNOWING WHAT TO EXPECT
- its perfectly natural to experience some nervousness before public
speaking, and in this sense a speech is more like a performance than a
conversation. If you expect some uncomfortable sensations caused by the
temporary adrenaline rush when you get up to speak, you won’t panic and
the symptoms will soon go away. Keep in mind that speaking stress feels
worse than it looks.
3.
FOCUSING ON YOURSELF INSTEAD OF THE AUDIENCE
- the novice speaker will often forget that the purpose of a
presentation is to give something to the audience. This can be
inspiration, motivation or information. But what ever it is, you must
always put the needs of the audience above your own personal desire to
look good. The more you can forget about yourself and focus on giving to
others, the more relaxed and energized you will feel.
4.
PROJECTION
- many of us are witheringly self-critical but are unaware that we do
this. We then tend to project this onto the audience imagining that they
are criticizing us or expecting us to fail when the origin of these
feelings is within ourselves. Becoming aware of this often unconscious
attitude is a big stress reliever.
5.
PROCRASTINATION AND LACK OF PREPARATION
- waiting until the last minute is really stress inducing. If you are a
habitual procrastinator, you should take a look at why you want to
sabotage yourself. Hard to see, but a very worthy exploration.
Copyright 2006 Susan Berkley
email:
susanb@greatvoice.com
phone: 201-541-8595
web:
http://www.greatvoice.com
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