How to overcome fear of public speaking ?

Best hacks to overcome the fear of public speaking 

‘The crowd scares me!’

‘I don’t like to be in the spotlight’

‘I don’t know what to say’

‘People will make fun of me even if I make a slight mistake’

You might find yourself often saying something very similar to these, whenever you are asked to speak at a public gathering or even in front of a small group of people unknown, be it professional or casual. Don't worry, it happens to the best of us.

Research has found that more than 60% of people suffer from this ‘disorder’, and includes a pretty huge percentage of teenagers. Whether or not you believe these numbers, we all can agree to the fact that these figures do give a quite accurate estimation of the actual conditions, if we contrast the ‘introverts’ to the ‘extroverts’. These numbers are huge enough that the Introverts can actually ally together to form a community and overthrow the Extroverts (seems like a good idea for a story, but for some other time).

This is often said to be the result of a traumatizing experience or incident. This may or may not be the case with you, but surely, there is more to it than can be seen.

Putting it pretty informally, this is just the consequence of the way your brain is wired. Everyone knows at least one person who can speak flawlessly, be it at a party, or a wedding, or a meeting, or any other occasion. Everyone seems to love them.

The fact that effective public speaking leaves a lasting positive impression on everyone is undeniable. At any community gathering, there is always that one person who is a part of the most elite and fun and engaging and interesting conversation, with all the buzz around themselves. Whereas, the silent ones always try to stay out of the limelight, do not engage themselves in the gossip of any sort, and leave the way they arrived, unnoticed. Who knows how many of such people have been to your late-night parties and you don’t even know about it. Dozens and dozens of them!

The most important issue that most people have is the trouble of accepting yourself for who you are, in an effort to be more like ‘that’ person. It might be the case that ‘that’ person wishes to be someone like you.

Hacks

‘Yeah yeah, that’s enough of this beating around the bush stuff. Just tell me how I get rid of this awkward personality. My interviewers will not care about any of this nonsense about self-acceptance’. I wholeheartedly agree with you. No one gives a damn about your personal or psychological problems, the world we live in is selfish and everyone only cares about anyone until and unless they are getting their job done.

This is not an unfixable problem (the public speaking one ;)), but like with most, it can be fixed with a little hard work and practice (it could be a lot of trouble for you, depending on the level of anxiousness and fear you are at, in other words, how bad is your condition).

There are a couple of little steps you have to keep in mind whenever you are preparing yourself for a speech of any kind.

1. Planning beforehand: It is crucial that you know what you are going to speak about. The earlier, the better. It gives you more time to carefully plan the words you choose and the way you form your sentences. Use this time to organize your thoughts and practice. Believe it or not, this is what becomes the most important point of concern when it is for professional purposes.

2. Focus on your material: It is necessary that you focus on and only on the content you are speaking. Looking at the audience, be it scarcely or frequently, is often the reason for people to stutter when they speak. However, if you are fine with speaking in front of an audience while maintaining eye contact, there’s nothing stopping you!

3. A moment of silence: The brain’s job is to perform the body functions with utmost synchronisation, not to remember stuff. You may forget what your next sentence is, or what you are about to address in the next paragraph, and it is completely okay too. Sometimes, the audience might even trick themselves into thinking that you have paused for effect, it’s a win-win.

Impromptu speaking

You see, speaking with content and preparation is not much of a handful, it’s just learning and preparation, but when you are given a topic to speak on in the next few minutes, then the real trouble begins. Don’t worry, we have hacks that will aid you with this, at least to a point where it is bearable, if not perfect.

1. Not striving for perfection: Although this sounds counter-instinctive, it is actually not. Perfection only exists in the ‘perfect’ world, it is not a term meant to be used practically. What this is all about is that you fight that urge in yourself to speak as fluently and flawlessly, and just speak, even if it is with tiny errors (try to avoid the big ones).

2. Being honest: Many of such interactions will demand that you present your views and feedback on a certain idea or issue. It is highly recommended that you be fully truthful and transparent with your words, as the truth occurs naturally to the human mind, and lies have to be made-up (except, of course, if your survival depends on it, you are free to say whatever is required).

3. Structuring: Last but not the least, it is important that you try to frame your sentences and structure your thoughts clearly before opening your mouth. This is probably the most important thing to do, as it will save you the instances when you realize that you didn’t keep track of the tense and vocabulary of the sentence, try to rephrase the point, and eventually lose your train of thought.

That’s all folks for today!

Now it's your turn to come out from your comfort zone and start working on yourself. Communication is the best skill a person can have.

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(This post was written by Saransh Kawadkar)

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