Conveying your thoughts and ideas in the clearest way possible and presenting them openly in a public gathering is an essential part of success across a few spaces of life. Being a good public speaker can help you to grow your career, your business and form strong bonds.
Do you know the name given to the fear of Public Speaking? Glossophobia – that’s a very cool and geeky name for the fear of Public Speaking. This fear catches hold of you when you are performing or expecting to perform an oral presentation or a speech in front of other people. Is glossophobia a reality?
Fear of public speaking is often yet erroneously referred to as individuals’ greatest fear. Fear of public speaking is apparently not people’s biggest fear. There are numerous other things that people are truly scared of. However, the fear of public speaking is very common. Roughly 25% of people report experiencing it.
Fear of public speaking can prevent you from facing challenges to share your thoughts and ideas and as a result, it can affect how much you develop personally and how much impact you can have. Simultaneously, any negative public speaking experiences could make your public speaking attempts in future more doubtful. Fear only teaches you to shield and guard yourself from risky situations.
Have you ever thought about what happens up there when you start to speak in public? Sometimes, even the thought of speaking in public causes anxiety and sleeplessness. A previously caused bad experience could be the reason for this fear. When you figure out the reasons for your fear, it can open up a whole new world of public speaking for yourself.
Look at the reasons given below and figure out which fear is the real villain of your life that is coming in your way of public speaking.
#1 Fear of Failure
The fear of failing can be debilitating. It can make us sit idle, and just stop moving ahead. In any case, when we allow fear to prevent us from moving ahead, we can miss some big open doors.
It can get so terrible that we choose to not try at all, or we even subconsciously bombard our own personal endeavors because we are trying to stay away from a significantly bigger failure later on.
#2 Fear of Inadequacy
It is so easy for us to come up with reasons behind why we are inadequate, isn’t it? We try to keep ourselves motivated whenever we feel somewhat shaky.
We may even come up with reasons we feel others are lacking to make sure that we don’t feel so bad. How long do you spend trying to keep that feeling of inadequacy away?
#3 Fear of Leadership
It requires some element of leadership to master public speaking.
We are driving and leading an audience. And, as a leader, you need to address and speak to your team. How can you expect that your audience or team should make a move if you can’t talk in front of them confidently? The more you speak and practice, the more confidence you gain in almost any situation.
#4 Fear of Competition
Competition is a piece of life. However, it is a major challenge for those who have not confronted it much previously, or who have confronted it and have not seen positive tables of achievement. Many a times, fear of competition is really a fear of perfectionism.
Athletes are a great example to look upon and we as public speakers can learn from them. Most of the time, an athlete’s fear is about keeping away from poor results whether prior to or during a presentation. Athletes frequently fear the unfortunate results of a poor or less than perfect performance. They always stress over letting their team or coach down. They stress over disappointing a parent or not fulfilling the parent’s expectations. They worry about numerous things that are frequently not under their immediate control and a lot of this concern is not necessary at all.
#5 Fear of Embarrassment
Committing mistakes is always a part and parcel of life forever. However, committing mistakes in front of the audience often creates a sense of embarrassment. Fearing this shame and embarrassment will constantly cause you even more humiliation. Embarrassment happens when you feel that others consider you to be a fool or stupid. To lay it out simply, embarrassment is feeling rejected.
#6 Fear of People
The other name for this fear is social anxiety. It is the fear caused due to social situations and interactions with other people and it can cause feelings of nervousness, judgment, assessment and self-exploration.
Have you been fine when alone and anxious in social situations? If yes, then fear of people may be the problem.
#7 Fear of Forgetting
If you lose your train of thoughts or begin to feel nervous and your mind goes blank, it may seem that you have been quiet for an eternity. In fact, it is probably only a few seconds. Even if it is longer, it is possible that your audience would not fret a pause to think about what you have been saying. You can try taking a few slow, deep breaths.
Do you relate your fears to any of the reasons given above? Acknowledge your fear and identify the reason behind it. Once you identify the reason, you can proceed to the solution of how to reduce your fear of public speaking. No one would expect you to be perfect. Or you may want to ward off negative thoughts and be charged up with positive affirmations.
Given that anxiety and fear are always a part of our life, it makes sense that it has its place when it comes to public speaking. It is up to you as to how you will successfully embrace the apprehension and channelize it to perform better.
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