Fear of Public Speaking | How to Overcome Public Speaking Anxiety?

Public speaking is unarguably the biggest fear most people have in their professional lives. Public speaking anxiety is the most common phobia affecting individuals of diverse age groups. This phobia is about performance uncertainty, it is a scenario when the person is visibly anxious, and in severe case panic attack while speaking. Instead of overcoming fear, people stay side from such a scenario by avoiding public meets. In a nutshell, we can say struggle with public lectures can be chronic & disruptive.

The fear of speaking starts at an early age, some even choose college course in a manner they don’t have to prepare presentations. When it comes to the professional aspect, these people generally step aside from projects & responsibilities where there is a need for public speaking. This fear leverages them to select a career path that doesn’t call for public presentations. While, many don’t go that far, but arrive late to the meeting, always try to hide in the crowd.

However, where we are lacking is don’t look for ways to get out the speaking hitch by joining public speaking courses in Sydney, instead evade public meets.

Why Are We Afraid of Public Speaking?

In professional life, the efficient communication of ideas openly with the high authorities and among the team members, public speaking is a fundamental component of success across various domains of life. By being a good speaker, as corporate personnel, you can advance your carrier and grow your business, and lead to robust collaborations. In terms of personal life, it helps you build long-term relations, and affect the society directly/indirectly at large.

Generally, speaking in front of the crowd panic isn’t related to the quality of speech, language barrier or personality aspect, there is an abundance of reasons people confront an inner barrier when they have to speak in the public. The various theories concerning the terror of speaking have been classified as followed

1. Physiology Matters

Fear & anxiety in medical terms related to the body nervous system mechanism, and how it responses to potential mind threatening stimulus.  When confronted with a scenario like this a human body reacts to the threat and prepare for the battle. But, in an individual dealing with struggling public speaking distress this in-built mechanism, doesn’t take place. So, eventually, they deter pursuing opportunities for addressing the crowd.

2. Your Thoughts Are Important

Another crucial factor that contributes to the fear of public speaking is the beliefs and how people believe in their abilities to face the crowd? Often overlooked, but the truth of life is, what we think is what we become. The sleepless nights before the public event happen when you think too much about what at stake? These people instead of holding a positive viewpoint, generally analyze what will happen, in case they are unable to perform well in front of their seniors, will they lose out a promotion? It is important you should hold negative views about yourself as a speaker. The easiest means to get over the struggles you have with speaking in the public is to practice, try to speak in front of your friends or relatives to gain confidence to face the crowd.

3. Situations Cannot Be Denied

While, many people by natural tend are anxious or think them not as a good speaker at addressing the crowd, stage fear happen to owe to a variety of situations. There are a plethora of events those trigger Goosebumps among speakers and a handful of these are highlighted below-

The lack of experience is the first and the foremost reason that contributes to lowering confidence when have to give a presentation to a crowd. So, in simple words, lack of stage hours can cause speaking fear.

The status difference is a major reason why you might be having a fear of facing a large gathering is that the audience is of higher status, such people belonging to higher authorities at the workplace. This then leads to waves of negativity tingling throughout the body.

If you are sharing an original idea with the public, in that case, you probably are fretting about how the crowd will welcome it.

How to Overcome The Barricade of Public Speaking Anxiety In Your Professional life?

There are so many ways you can promote your oral presentation skills, and a few of these are explained below, so scroll down and take a look-

Be Organized

By being well-prepared for a public presentation event, you can get out of the mind hassle of getting in front of the crowd. Doing so will help you be relaxed and in fact this the fundamental tip on how to give a good presentation? This is because, if you are organized, then you can significantly reduce speech anxiety.

Eliminate The Fear of Rejection

What if the public doesn’t like your speech? Don’t think about this, be positive the crowd will welcome. Look into the opportunities rather than thinking much about the fear of rejection.

Practice

See yourself in the mirror and practice daily to gradually learn the art of public speaking. You can also talk to your friends on this a few days in advance to be well-prepared to win over the hearts of the people by your speech. The various aspects you are required to look into your facial expression, how your gestures are, and the body movements are too pivotal, and lastly how positive you appear for the speech.

Command on Breathing

While, this is often the most overlooked factor, but you are required to have better control over your voice & breathing, because then only you will able to speak in a rhythm and obtain the trust of public listening to you. The breath-control is the key that counters stress and ultimately bring clarity to each word you are pronouncing.

Public Speaking Courses

One of the straightforward and effective ways to improve your speaking skills and to have full faith in you while giving a presentation is to join public speaking classes. So, find a good mentor with extensive experience to help professionals overcome the struggles with public speaking. A public speaking improvement program takes into account a variety of problems individual face in their day-to-day professional life when they have to deal with presentations.

Drink Luke Lemon water

Sometimes squeezing half a lemon in warm water can be the game changer minutes before addressing the crowd. However, it is imperative you stay away from sugary drinks before going to a public address. This is because beverages high on Caffeine or sugar content can dry the mouth causing problems while speaking.

Read Books

Books are always humans’ best friends, so it is important to go through a few great references for public speaking. Dean of American Public Speakers is a resourceful book to go through and improve your speaking skills.

The material is the key

Days before the event, it is important that you research the domain to deliver a resourceful speech rather worrying about the audience reactions.

In the end, all the above public speaking tips are worth following to achieve peaks of success in your professional life.