How do you deal with public speaking anxiety?
What are some lessons you’ve learned "the hard way"? How far have you come, how are you still struggling, and how would you recommend others tackle their own fears with public speaking?
I think the only way to truly get over the fear is to do it unfortunately. One thing that really helped me was that I did some training through my workplace. As part of this training they got us to do these embarrassing but funny things, and everyone had to do them so nobody felt any more stupid than anyone else. One of the things was bursting into the room Kramer-style from Seinfeld. But the whole point of it was to take us so far out of our comfort zone in standing up and making a fool of ourselves in front of people, that when it came to standing up and making a presentation it seemed like a piece of cake. That was the real turning point for me. Now I don’t love it, but it doesn’t keep me awake at night if I know I have to present. The other tip is really know your material. If you’re comfortable with what you’re presenting it’s not as scary, because the fear is about being judged. If you know your stuff the fear of people asking questions you can’t answer isn’t so bad.
June 30th, 2010 at 11:26 am
In my own experience, I’ve become better at public speaking with each time I’ve done it. The larger the crowd and the more often I do it, the easier it becomes.
A more realistic approach may be to know the information that your talking about. If you don’t know what you’re speaking about, then how are you going to feel comfortable telling a large group about it? If you know more about what you’re telling, you’ll feel much better about the speaking.
Hope that helps. =)
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June 30th, 2010 at 12:15 pm
I think the only way to truly get over the fear is to do it unfortunately. One thing that really helped me was that I did some training through my workplace. As part of this training they got us to do these embarrassing but funny things, and everyone had to do them so nobody felt any more stupid than anyone else. One of the things was bursting into the room Kramer-style from Seinfeld. But the whole point of it was to take us so far out of our comfort zone in standing up and making a fool of ourselves in front of people, that when it came to standing up and making a presentation it seemed like a piece of cake. That was the real turning point for me. Now I don’t love it, but it doesn’t keep me awake at night if I know I have to present. The other tip is really know your material. If you’re comfortable with what you’re presenting it’s not as scary, because the fear is about being judged. If you know your stuff the fear of people asking questions you can’t answer isn’t so bad.
References :
June 30th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
oh my gosh, i used to be such a scaredy cat when i had to perform anything infront of people. In college, you can take public speech classes, or if youre lucky, some high schools have those classes too. Remember you take those classes to become a better speaker who can speak clearly and share their ideas straight foward. I think the only key is to gain some confidence. Just think youre the best and everyone else is just plain dumb. Also, when I do presentations or something like that, i have a little stress ball in my hands to kind of relax a bit.
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June 30th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Just don’t focus on "what other people are thinking of you"
Just focus on your topic.
Don’t make a eye contact more than a second.
like I said Focus
&
Breath
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