How to Conquer Your Fear of Public Speaking

Public speaking is increasingly a skill that is affecting more and more of us in a constantly changing world and it is inevitable that anyone will at some point have to stand up in front of others and present his or her ideas to a group, be it from a small meeting at work to a huge crowd of people.

It’s a truly daunting task that nobody truly has mastered, no man or woman has ever presented a speech that is free from error, be it that the great aurators of the past have come incredibly close, but it is often true that people listen the speaker and critics listen to the words.

To get to the root of this fear we must first know the fear, following the words of Sun Tzu; “It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles.”

So what do we fear when we stand up in front of a crowd and speak, do we fear that our ideas will be scorned? Do we fear that we will be laughed off or that we will break down humiliate ourselves? These are the common and perfectly understandable and reasonable fears associated with public speaking. Nobody likes being laughed at or humiliated. The problem comes when we face the question, how do I avoid this humiliation? We could run away from the problem, make it so that we never have to speak in public or minimalise it so it is barely a risk any more. But where are we then? Are we anything that we can look back upon and say, “I was proud of myself that day”? Where does running away take us, but backwards?

Public speaking is an oppurtunity, a chance to present our views to many people all at once, gain support, respect and open up more oppurtunities in the future. But really, how do we conquer this fear? When you realise that humiliation is the primary fear at hand here you may also find in yourself the key to succeeding in public speaking. For what humiliates a public speaker more then obvious fear? In 99 out of 100 cases of a failed speech it is because of fear itself that the speaker has not succeeded. I hate the phrase, but in this situation it is so apt, “you have nothing to fear, but fear itself”.

Walk out there and before you go say to yourself, after this, even if I’m not successful, even if my words are discarded by my audience they will at least say. “well, at least he/she was brave” and let yourself walk away knowing you made the best that could be from this oppurtunity, that you took the oppurtunity and even though it didn’t work out how you planned you can look back and know you never let yourself down.