How to combat the fear of public speaking?
How to combat the fear of public speaking? When asked “What are you most afraid of?” a significant number of us will answer that we are afraid of public speaking. The root of this problem is a lack of experience in public expression. Oratory was a skill highly valued in the past, so a lot of time was spent on perfecting voice modulation, poise and the ability to express one’s thoughts in speech.
In modern times, most of us are occasionally confronted with the need to speak in public, whether at school, where this skill should be particularly developed, or later in life.
The only solution to the problem is training, let’s try to speak as often as possible, first among friends and family, such as by toasting at parties, so that over time we can practice on larger and larger groups of unknown people. Let’s devote our free time to reading, so that we increase our vocabulary and speaking will become easier. Let’s not be afraid of compromising, there is no reason to stress ourselves, as none of the people listening to us certainly wish us ill.
If we are preparing for a scheduled speech, it is a good idea to prepare a speech plan for ourselves and write it down on a piece of paper in the form of a few points. This way we have a ready schedule for our speech and a simple download on what to talk about and in what order. In this way you can avoid jamming or repeating the same thought several times. You should not be afraid of the people to whom you are speaking. It is worth imagining that there are worse situations in life, and there is absolutely nothing embarrassing about speaking whether to a few or a few hundred people. Imagine that we are speaking to our good friend, and if we get stumped, we should try to formulate the thought from another angle, or give it up and move on with the speech.
The skill of public speaking is an art that can be learned, developed and improved. Fear of it comes only from inexperience, so by following the above advice and practicing in every available situation, with time we will reach such a state that the fear will disappear and speaking will begin to give us natural pleasure.
Text prepared by psychologist / trainer / coach Ms. Justyna Iwanowska from Zielona Gora.
