If you suffer from social anxiety and shyness, you might find yourself avoiding many social situations. If you put in a great deal of work, you could find that you are quite witty and fun around the right crowd. What happens, though, if that crowd gets bigger? What happens if it is made of strangers? If you are like many, you might be gripped by an acute fear of public speaking. Fortunately, you can overcome that fear with a bit of hard work and by following the right public speaking tips. Your mind might be your worst enemy when you decide to speak publicly, but it can also be your greatest asset.
A Common Fear
The good news is that many people suffer from a fear of public speaking. This fear is in no way confined to those who suffer from social anxiety and shyness, and even those who are generally considered to be quite well adjusted are often terrified at the idea of talking in front of a crowd. Individuals who effortlessly jump out of planes or walk into fires may go pale at the idea of saying a few words in front of their friends and loved ones. If anything, this should make you feel like you are part of a rather inclusive group when you start to be afraid that you simply cannot speak in front of a crowd.
The difference, of course, is that many people who are afraid to speak publicly are still willing to do so. There are major recording artists who have terrible performance anxiety, and some of the most quoted individuals in history had aversions to crowds. The key is not removing your fear, but rather moving on in spite of that fear. Social anxiety and shyness have to give way to bravery if you want to be able to speak publicly and to reap the benefits that come from being an adept public speaker.
Why You Need to Speak Publicly
Avoiding public speaking can be a huge mistake. While some people can get through their entire lives without addressing a crowd, the average person will be asked to stand up in a crowd at least once or twice. In these circumstances, refusing to speak can carry with it major consequences. Think back to situations that social anxiety and shyness have ruined for you – and now think about how they have impacted others. Refusal to speak at an appropriate time can hurt your relationships as well as your career.
Refusal to speak when asked to at work is career suicide. Shyness and social anxiety might be an excuse to avoid some functions, but those who want to excel are going to have to show leadership potential. The best way to show this potential is to step up and address a group in a meaningful manner. If you can do that, you can make sure that your ideas are heard.
Many public speaking tips tend to forget that public speaking can also impact families. This fear can stop you from giving a speech as a best man or at a child’s graduation. If you refuse to speak, you can hurt someone that you love in a way that you may never be able to repair. As such, you need to invest in your own ability to speak publicly before it is too late.
Public Speaking Tips: Learning Your Speech
One of the simplest public speaking tips is to take the time to learn what you are going to say ahead of time. It might sound simple, but it is something about which many people forget. If you are able to follow such simple public speaking tips early on in your public speaking career, you can forget about social anxiety and shyness for at least a few moments. You can instead embrace the preparation that has helped you to get through so many other situations in life.
Practice makes perfect, according to most public speaking tips. If you suffer from social anxiety and shyness, you might have already dealt with a handful of situations in which practice has made life easier. Like learning a sport or how to dance, speaking is going to take significant practice. Start by giving your speech in front of a mirror, and work your way up to giving it in front of those who you trust. In time, you will be used to giving your speech in front of crowds – and you might not even realize that the fear is gone until you have already given your speech.
Public Speaking Tips: Writing it Down
Preparation is one of the best public speaking tips in which you can invest. If you have a fear of public speaking, you might be able to make things a bit better by focusing on the text instead of the event itself. The better you know your text, the better you will be able to control your nerves. Most people with a fear of public speaking have that fear because they are afraid of what might happen. If you can control your speech, though, you will be able to control yourself.
Public speaking tips usually call for writing things down on note cards, a helpful suggestion for those who are organized. If you are less organized, try to put things on a piece of paper. This will help you to avoid getting your note cards mixed up and will allow you to keep up with your own speech. While your fear of public speaking might make it hard for you to read on the day of the event, try practicing with that written speech ahead of time. You will find that your fear of public speaking will no longer concern what you are able to say.
Public Speaking Tips: Reducing Stress
Public speaking tips generally concern methods of keeping you from embarrassing yourself in front of an audience. This major fear is why so many people avoid speaking in front of others, and why so many rate the fear as greater than that of death. If you are this stressed out by your fear of public speaking, you have to figure out a way to get to the source of that stress. Your fear of public speaking can’t stop you from doing your job or being a part of social situations, so you need to control your social anxiety and shyness in a manner that will allow you to participate in life.
The first way of reducing your fear of public speaking is to use any other calming techniques that you use to control your social anxiety and shyness. Think of your fear of public speaking as your social anxiety and shyness writ large – if you have a way to deal with groups, you have a way to deal with speaking in front of that group. Coping methods from controlled breathing to yoga might help you to give a quick speech. Don’t let yourself get fooled by the idea that a public speech is any different than one made in private.
If your usual social anxiety and shyness techniques don’t work, the next of the public speaking tips for those looking to overcome a fear of public speaking is to ignore the audience in favor of the text. Does this make you a great public speaker? No. But it certainly helps you to get through the evening. Public speaking tips are usually written for the social, but those with social anxiety and shyness issues might need a bit of help. Focus your attention on getting over your fear of public speaking not by imaging your audience in their underwear, but by imagining that they are not there at all.
Public Speaking Tips: Creating Patterns
Many people who suffer from social anxiety and shyness find comfort in routines. If you know what is going to happen, you have a higher degree of control over the situation. One of the better public speaking tips for those who have a fear of public speaking is to create a pattern of control when it comes time to speak publicly. This may not help you to become a better speaker in off-the-cuff situations, but it will help you to prepare for your speeches without requiring you to give into fear.
Public speaking tips are usually about psychology, and it’s good to stick with that. Creating a calm environment is a good way to soothe your mind and to convince yourself that you are not going to give into fear. While your fear of public speaking might not go away just because you will it to do so, you can create a pattern that calms your mind. Picking a particular tie that you always wear when giving a speech might help, for example – it may not be a “lucky tie”, but rather a tie that you identify with public speeches. That tie might see you through one success, and then you can consider it a key to future endeavors.
You can also go through a specific routine before a public speech. Your fear of public speaking might be calmed if you always make sure to visit a favorite restaurant before you speak, or if you always open with a joke. Anything that puts you in the right frame of mind helps. When a public speaking engagement becomes something that is normal, you can eliminate much of the fear of public speaking that might keep you away from big speaking engagements.
Public Speaking Tips: Embracing Uncertainty
The hardest of the public speaking tips to allow yourself to follow is this: you have to embrace your fear of public speaking. You might think that your fear of public speaking is something that is holding you back, but it can actually help you to become a more effective public speaker. You have to learn how to understand that any speaking engagement may be uncertain, and translate that uncertainty into the ability to adapt and overcome your fear.
The fear of public speaking is a fear of embarrassment. You might be afraid that people will laugh at you, or that you will forget what you are supposed to say. You can use this uncertainty to make yourself a better speaker than those who are completely confident. Look inwards towards that fear, and make it a part of your preparation. Your fear of public speaking can become the factor that motivates you to step up and create a great speak. Your goal is not to remove the uncertainty, but rather to make it work in your favor.
Give yourself options and outs when it comes to your fear of public speaking. If you know that you are likely to stammer, avoid words on which you tend to get caught. If you think you might have trouble saying a word, avoid it – and you might just avoid a word that your audience has trouble understanding. You fear the things that might make you give a bad speech, so identifying them can actually help you to make your speech better. Public speaking tips rarely acknowledge the usefulness of fear, but it can be a great ally for someone who suffers from social anxiety and shyness.
You have to let go of the idea that you will be a perfect speaker every time that you open your mouth. You are going to make mistakes, and that’s okay. No matter what your social anxiety and shyness tells you, it is okay to be less than perfect. If you are willing to follow the right public speaking tips and take on speaking engagements on your own terms, you can be a success. You don’t need to fear speaking in front of others, because you have been asked to speak for a reason. You will always be in front of a room that genuinely wants to hear from you, and you will always be given a fair chance. If you are willing to embrace the opportunity, you might be able to do more with a simple speech than you can imagine.