Speaking to a lot of people gives me the shivers every time. The moment I step up the stage, or in front of my peers, my knees start to shake, my hands feel cold, and my heart beats like mad. Ever had this feeling? Somehow, I survived each experience *whew!*. Thanks to the tips I got from an article on conquering public speaking fear written by Morton C. Orman, M.D. In his article he discussed 10 principles we have to remember about public speaking. I would like to share these principles right here. For today, I'll post the first of ten principles by Dr. Orman.
Principle #1 -- Speaking in Public is NOT Inherently Stressful
Most of us believe parts of life are inherently stressful. In fact, most of us have been taught to believe that life as a whole is very stressful!
To deal with any type of stress effectively, you first must understand that life itself, including public speaking, is NOT inherently stressful. Thousands of human beings have learned to speak in front of groups with little or no stress at all. Many of these people were initially terrified to speak in public. Their knees would shake, their voices would tremble, their thoughts would become jumbled... you know the rest. Yet they learned to eliminate their fear of public speaking completely.
You are no more or less human than they are. If they can conquer the fear of public speaking, so can you! It just takes the right guiding principles, the right understanding, and the right plan of action to make this goal a reality.
Believe me, it's not difficult. I'm a good example of someone who conquered the fear of public speaking. And while I didn't do it overnight, it wasn't difficult. All it took was approaching the problem in the right way.
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