Any public speaking begins with diligent preparation: and it doesn’t matter what level of “oratory” you have. First, choose the topic of your speech. Secondly, evaluate who you will be speaking to. Who is your audience?
If these questions cause you difficulty, read our recommendations in the article. They will help you not only prepare for a public speech, but also avoid mistakes that will turn your speech into a boring lecture.
FEAR
In order not to be afraid to perform, you need to be able to do it. And to be able to do it, you need to study, practice, and perform. Fear comes from ignorance, inability, the unknown.
So, how well you convey information to your students can be the difference between an educator who can inspire, truly teach, and be influential, and a class that won't concentrate because they have a teacher who can't connect with them.
So how do you improve the often difficult task of public speaking? First of all, find what you need. Talking about something you enjoy and having personal experience plus have been successful is so different from trying to talk about topics you don't really have any input into. Make sure you know your topic well and have done your homework. Think ahead about the questions your audience might ask you and prepare appropriate responses. This will definitely increase your confidence in delivering your presentation.
First, a few sentences about fear as such.
Not just about performance anxiety
, but
about fear
in general. Then there will be good practical technique. And at the very end - an interesting video.
One of (not all reasons are considered)
The main
reasons for fear
, as such, is the lack of information in the subconscious. That is, there is exactly zero information. Or almost zero.
However, you may still feel very nervous because there are so many people in front of you, all focused on you. You feel good about yourself when you do good work, don't make mistakes, and don't forget anything. However, once you actually start speaking and get past the first few minutes or so, if you are well prepared, you gradually become more relaxed and your confidence grows.
This is truly a fantastic opportunity to 'practice, practice, practice' in a supportive, non-threatening and learning environment that allows you to work at your own pace to improve and achieve your goals. Let's look at some more ways to overcome your fear of public speaking. Make sure all information you present is in place, including any audio or visual aids. If possible, stop by the dealership in advance and confirm how to set up and use any equipment needed.
- Example. When you enter a dark room and see nothing, that is, you have zero visual information, it’s scary. You can’t see anything – that’s why it’s scary. And if you still don’t hear anything, it’s even worse. You know, such a ringing silence. Creepy. What if this is not your room, or is it not a room at all?
This lack of information is filled with anything... (bad).
When you are organized and have all your thoughts and materials in order and ready to go forward, you can mentally relax more since you don't have to worry about them during your actual presentation. Second, don't remember what you're going to say in your lesson or presentation word for word. This just makes your anxiety increase as you have to worry about slipping away. Instead, draw it out completely in an outline, with all the main points, examples, and ideas.
Then practice your speech using only your outline. During rehearsals, try not to be so rigid and instead let your ideas flow naturally, making connections between the dots in your outline. This way, you can deliver your speech as if you were talking to a friend. For real speech, condense your outline onto a small card to keep you on track.
- And your imagination begins to paint terrible pictures of everything you are afraid of.
And the subconscious is filled with information.
But which one? If you are afraid of monsters, then scary monsters will appear to you in the dark. If you are afraid of violence, you will feel someone approaching from behind. If…
- You yourself guessed how this could be continued.
But as soon as visibility appears, it’s no longer scary. At least something is already visible.
A song that explains what's happening to me as it happens, allowing the audience to process it
Third, understand that your audience is probably not analyzing your speech along with all your words, thoughts and nonverbal movements as far as you can think.
In fact, they are likely to be distracted by other interests, especially if they are students. Fourth, try using the “it doesn’t matter” approach. When students give presentations, they have to worry about being assessed and their performance affecting their overall grades. Thus, their anxiety often increases, which affects their delivery and performance. However, most of the time teachers are not classified as such when teaching a class or teaching a seminar at a conference with their peers, and so we can theoretically relax more.
- But, only on the condition that what you saw is known and understandable to you. And if it is not known - that is, again there is no information - then the fear continues. Or it gets stronger.
If the information is maximum (everything is visible, everything is clear, everything is known) – there will be no fear.
Now let’s continue, but in relation to stage fright and fear of public speaking.
This will hopefully relieve you of a lot of the pressure and stress you feel before giving your talk. Fifth, practice your speech first in front of someone you feel very comfortable with, such as your best friend, significant other, or parent. Then ask them to give you feedback and do so in a frank but constructive manner.
Sixth, record your speech using a video camera and see what you can improve. The fewer things you have to worry about during your actual performance, the more relaxed you will be. Finally, do some light exercises before you give your speech. Exercise gets the blood flowing and sends oxygen to your brain. Go for a short walk or do some light stretching. This should help stimulate your body and mind, and make you less stiff, both mentally and physically.
If you have never spoken in front of a large audience, then you have almost zero information about this speech.
- You don’t know, or rather your subconscious doesn’t know, what to do in such an emergency situation. And because of this, he is in great tension, expecting some kind of trouble every second. The “good” imagination lays out all the worst assumptions in black and dirty tones.
I want to hide
(anywhere) or
run away
from the stage.
But I don’t want to perform
at all.
Speech by Joe Cowan
By keeping these points in mind and applying them, we hope to ease your inhibitions about speaking in public.
Remember that public speaking is something that can be learned and improved—you don't have to be born a great speaker to become one. “Practice, practice, practice” is the key. And if you made some mistakes, don't worry about it. This is how you will learn to become a better speaker, over time you will feel more comfortable and confident speaking in front of an audience, and in turn you will engage and inspire your students. If you want to know more about this topic. Read about the% of people who are afraid of public speaking and scientific ways to overcome glossophobia.
- Sound familiar?
Interesting video. It's not about speakers, but about an owl. But...how similar is the fear of the speaker and this owl. Look.
My comments:
An owl is sitting. The most ordinary. A smaller owl, a barn owl, is brought to her. Our owl decides to show her superiority, and she does it beautifully.
But now, a larger predator - an eagle owl - is brought to the owl. An eagle owl sits calmly on a man's hand. But what happened to our owl? How did she change?
If the thought of standing in front of a crowd and giving a speech makes your spine shiver, you're not alone. Glossophobia, also known as the fear of public speaking, is an all-too-common occurrence with millions of people around. This struggle is a type of social phobia that can significantly impact your personal and professional relationships, as well as your overall quality of life.
Overcoming glossophobia can be challenging, but it is not impossible if you have the right tools. We've also found helpful tips on how to move forward from your trepidation so you can become more comfortable sharing your thoughts in the workplace and other social settings. To begin, we examined data from several sources to determine how many people suffer from public speaking and what, if any, influences its development.
Very often a frightened speaker looks like a frightened owl.
What to do?
First.
Avoid
pessimistic
and
negative thoughts
.
Namely. Stop worrying fruitlessly!
Get busy!
For example, a rehearsal. And if, nevertheless, negative thoughts seep in, there is no need
to savor them in all the spectrums of your imagination.
When is public fear truly paralyzing?
What percentage of people are afraid of public speaking?
It is estimated that up to 75% of the population struggles with public speaking to some degree. This means that about 238 million people worry about talking to other people. Are men or women more prone to fear? When it comes to speaking in front of an audience, men seem more relaxed when addressing a crowd. According to one survey, 44% of women said they were afraid of public speaking, while 37% of men agreed. Second.
Fill your imagination with joyful and successful pictures.
Namely. Imagine
that your
performance will be very successful
. That you will be applauded! Imagine it visually, in bright colors. Imagine an auditorium, admiring people listening to you, hear their applause. Imagine yourself from the outside, speaking beautifully and confidently.
How to overcome your fear of speaking in public
Does education reflect levels of glossophobia? The more educated you are, the more comfortable you are talking in front of others. In one survey, 24% of college graduates expressed fear of public speaking, compared with 52% of respondents with a high school diploma or less.
“I’m afraid to speak”: what actually causes stress in a speaker?
How about a race? Surprisingly, there is a small racial gap when it comes to who is more prone to glossophobia. In the same survey mentioned above, 43% of whites admitted to being nervous about public speaking, versus 34% of non-whites.
- Just don't overdo it!
Otherwise, you will start worrying in the other direction.
Get inspired
To understand the structure of a successful speech that influences the minds of listeners, watch videos in the format of Ted conferences. This is a special genre of public speaking, where outstanding figures from the world of art and science talk about their ideas, problems and solutions under limited time conditions. In Russia, this type of conference is just emerging, but there are already examples of brilliant speeches that ignite the hearts of the crowd. Observe what exactly attracts listeners - usually these are short personal stories, examples from personal life, openness, sincerity, appropriate jokes.
Further. Fear of performing.
When does he appear? Before the performance
.
Nothing has happened yet, but fear
appears because we are modeling the future.
Fear is in the future.
To offer a deeper understanding of what causes fear of public speaking, we decided to do a little more digging and look at how many people suffer from anxiety and social phobias. How many Americans experience anxiety? Approximately 40 million people aged 18 to 20 suffer from various forms of anxiety. Only about a third of people who have anxiety problems seek treatment.
How common is social anxiety disorder? Glossophobia is usually classified as a form of social anxiety disorder. It is estimated that about 15 million people become ill with the disease every day. What is the lifetime prevalence rate for anxiety? Lifetime prevalence refers to the number of people who will experience a particular condition at a given time. Approximately 9% of the population will experience generalized anxiety disorder at least once in their lifetime.
Fear
can live in the past, when we remember all the failures regarding
our performances
.
- If, of course, such experience exists.
But is there fear in the present
?
In the present there is virtually no fear.
Therefore, third.
Stop
worrying about the future
, which does not exist yet, and remembering the past, which no longer exists.
But get down to real business
.
And if you want to think about what will happen, make only optimistic assumptions.
- Thoughts about luck bring good luck.
Fourth. Make every detail of the speech familiar to you.
After all, fear is a lack of information
in the subconscious, lack of real experience.
What exactly should I do? You need to get to know your speech, rehearse it, feel it.
- It is useful to record this on video and watch it. You can do this several times until you get used to your speech.
It’s useful to get to know the hall before the performance, go into it, stand around, get used to it. It is, of course, better to rehearse in it, if this is possible, of course.
- We need to find out who will be present. The ideal option is if you meet these people in advance and talk. But it's perfect. In reality, whatever happens, but get to know your audience as much as possible in advance.
Fifth.
Knowledge.
As Dale Carnegie said: “Fear comes from ignorance.”
.
The lack of knowledge “ how to speak competently
” provides food for many
worries
.
Acquire this knowledge
.
Take a public speaking course
.
If there are none in your city, sign up for online training
.
Our School of Public Speaking has good trainers who teach public speaking online
.
Learn the basics of rhetoric once - and no longer worry about “whether you are speaking correctly.”
We are not afraid to perform! We love performing! We want to perform!
Practical exercise
Practice
Again, this is advice that may seem expected and banal, but in fact, without it only a few who are unlikely to need our list of recommendations will be able to achieve success. Start speaking in an accepting and understanding circle - for example, in the company of friends, parents, children, colleagues you like. Take on the role of presenter in games, try yourself as a toastmaster at parties. Gradually move on to more stringent conditions: speak at meetings and meetings among familiar colleagues. Try yourself in the educational field, for example, in speeches in front of small children: these are grateful listeners, at the same time honest and open (if they are not interested, they will not pretend and politely pretend). Finally, no one canceled training alone in front of the mirror.
HOW TO OVERCOME THE FEAR OF SPEAKING IN FRONT OF A PUBLIC
This is one of the most effective techniques for dealing with fears.
in oratory.
Say out loud what you're afraid of
.
- I am afraid to speak in front of “such and such” audience.
It is imperative to clarify before which one
It’s scary to speak
to an audience , not to speak in general.
- I'm afraid to perform on this stage.
Changing the word "I'm afraid"
to the word
“I want!”
. And we talk several times.
- I want to perform on this stage.
It is important that this “I want!”
it was with an exclamation point, and not just “well, I want.”
Here are some more examples of reframing
- I'm afraid
to speak first. - I want
to speak first.
- I'm afraid
to perform on stage now. - I want
to perform on stage now.
In order not to be afraid to make gestures, you need to learn how to do it beautifully.
It is clear that in order to perform well, you need to study. For example, if a person does not know how to swim, it is useless to fight fear
, you need to learn to swim, and not engage in reframing. If a person does not know how to perform, he needs to learn to perform.
For this purpose, there are trainings, courses, groups and other forms of training.
You can train yourself - is there anything wrong with “reinventing the wheel” on your own?)
The speaker needs reframing only when fear appears.
An experienced speaker has fear
does not arise.
Because he has experience
, and this is the best
cure for fear
.
This technique is not new. Many people have been using it for a long time in various fields. This method is also used in NLP and other areas of practical psychology.
That’s what I’m afraid of - that’s what I replace with “ I’m afraid
" to "
I want
".
I'm afraid
take a rhetoric course...
=> I want
to take a rhetoric course!
